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LITTLE LIVES OF GREAT MEN 





ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

From a rare photograph taken by Alexander Hester in Chicago, i860, 

and loaned by the Chicago Photo-Gravure Company, 

who own the original 



Little Lives of Great Men 

LINCOLN 

THE MAN OF THE PEOPLE 



By 

WILLIAM H. MACE 

Professor of History in Syracuse Univer- 
sity; Author of "Methods in History," 
"School History of the United States" 
and "Stories of Heroism," 



WITH 
4 HALF-TONE ILLUSTRATIONS FROM 
PHOTOGRAPHS AND 58 PICTURES BY 

HOMER W. COLBY 




Chicago New York London 

RAND McNALLY&CO. 



Copyright, IQ12, 
By WILLIAM H. MACE 



Chicago New York 



CU328468 



To the memory of 

Ira Mace and John Dodson 

two admirers of 

Abraham Lincoln 



THE TABLE OF CONTENTS 



The Preface 

His "Old Kentucky Home" 

Frontier Life in Indiana . 

Lincoln at School . 

Lincoln a Favorite 

Great Physical and Mental Powers 

A New World Opens 

Lincoln Leaves the Indiana Woods 

for the Illinois Prairies . 
The Second Trip to New Orleans 
Clerk in a Country Store 

Captain Lincoln 

Trying to Get Office 

Lincoln's National Debt 

Two Offices Given Lincoln by the 

Democrats 

Elected to the State Legislature 
Lincoln Re-elected a Second, a 

Third, and a Fourth Time 
He Decides to Become a Lawyer 
Lincoln's First Love .... 
Love and Marriage .... 
Getting Ready for Congress . 
Lincoln in Congress .... 



I 
6 

14 
21 
24 
27 

33 
36 
40 

49 

52 



57 
60 

64 
71 
74 
79 
83 
86 



vu 



vttt 



The Man of the People 



Lincoln Everybody's Friend 
Life on the Circuit .... 
Beginning to Debate Slavery . 
"A House Divided against Itself' 
The Lincoln-Douglas Debates . 
Lincoln before the People of the 

United States 

Saying Good-by to Old Friends 
On the Way to Washington . 
Lincoln Inaugurated President 
The Storm Breaks .... 
Shutting Up the Ports of th 

South . 

Trying to Find a Great General 
Uprooting Slavery .... 
Life in the White House 
Lincoln's Love for the Soldier 

Elected Again 

The Last Days of the War 
The Death of Abraham Lincoln 



PAGE 
89 
92 

lOI 

no 

113 

125 
135 
139 
143 

148 

153 
157 

160 
164 

168 
175 
179 

183 



The Preface 

THE story of Lincoln's life appeals to 
young and old and to rich and 
poor. Deeper poverty and denser 
ignorance seldom fall to the lot of a great 
man. The hard yet cheerful struggle 
against these twin difficulties makes a tale 
bordering on the marvelous. With wolf- 
like ferocity they dogged his footsteps for 
more than half his life. He conquered 
ignorance with Spelling Book, Grammar, 
and Blackstone. He won a victory over 
poverty by harder fighting and longer 
years of toil. This struggle left its marks. 
The earlier years of his rough-and- 
tumble life were a rich storehouse wherein 
he laid up strength of muscle and steadi- 
ness of nerve that answered him well 
in the exhausting battles of political cam- 
paigns or in the more trying days of Civil 
War. The struggle with poverty devel- 
oped a rugged honesty most refreshing in 
the politician. Lying by the evening fire, 
or sitting with his heels higher than his 
head, at the noon hour, or perched upon 
a stump while his horses rested from 
plowing, he read in quiet his favorite 

ix 



X Abraham Lincoln 

books, and as he read he thought. By 
this means he developed an intellectual 
acumen, a solidity of reasoning, and an 
accuracy and beauty of diction that made 
him the peer of the great men he met later, 
and gave him the power to produce state 
papers that have no equal in political 
literature. 

The story of his life is both dramatic 
and pathetic. It takes hold on the chil- 
dren of toil and the children of wealth. It 
rouses hope in the child of poverty, and 
excites admiration in the child of the well 
to do. 

Lincoln was endowed with a spirit 
of kindliness akin to that of the Man of 
Galilee. It made him the willing advo- 
cate of widow and orphan. Bubbling with 
fun and humor, it overflowed in stories 
that made a backwoods crowd hang on 
his words or appealed to such a judge 
on the bench as Davis. It made it possible 
for him to treat Douglas with unfailing 
courtesy, and enabled him to carry an 
undying hatred of slavery without hating 
the slaveholder. It made him long suffer- 
ing in dealing with politicians and army 
officers and led him to mourn alike for 
Federal and Confederate dead. It was 



The Man of the People xi 

manifested in an affection for the common 
soldier that made him the idol of the army, 
and caused thousands of men in all walks 
of life to weep when he was assassinated. 

Nowhere in the story of Lincoln has the 
writer essayed to teach a lesson. He does 
not believe in much moralizing, but 
believes rather in allowing the life itself 
to teach its own lessons. 

W. H. Mace. 

Syracuse University, 

October, igi2. 




Medal in memory of Abraham Lincoln 
presented to Mrs. Lincoln by the French 



LINCOLN 

THE MAN OF THE PEOPLE 
His ''Old Kentucky Home" 

THE parents of Abraham Lincoln 
lived in Kentucky, having moved 
to that state from Virginia. His father's 
people came from New England. The 
mother was Nancy Hanks Lincoln. She 
was tall, dark-haired, and dignified. 
She was a woman full of pleasant ways 
and kindly deeds, and was a person to 
be loved. She had been taught to read 
her Bible, a thing that raised her above 
her neighbors and caused them to look 
up to her, for Kentucky was then a new 
state, and books were few and schools 
were scarce. 

Thomas Lincoln, the father, did not 
know how to read, but his wife taught him 



Abraham Lincoln 



to make the letters that spelled his name. 
The Lincolns were poor, so poor that the}^ 




Krom "Stories of Heroism," bj Wm. H. Mace 

The birthplace of Abraham Lincoln, Hodgenville, Kentucky. 

The window was added by later occupants. The cabin 

is now inclosed by a memorial building of granite 

probably thought very little about it. 
They lived in a cabin. It had but one 
room, no windows, and no floor but the 
hard earth. Here, in the midst of pov- 
erty, our hero was born, February 12, 1809. 
In after years Lincoln did not like to 
talk about those days of poverty. Never- 
theless, to little Abe this home among the 
trees, with the neighbors far away, was not 
without its good fortune. He had an only 
sister a bit older than himself to play 



The Man of the People j 

with ; but these two children had a won- 
derful playground: the great deep, dark 
forests of their neighborhood. Here they 
were free to roam about to their hearts' 
content. 

Near by flowed a spring, in the bright 
waters of which they saw their own faces, 
and from which they took many a cooling 
drink by kneeling on the ground or by 
dipping up the water in the gourds they 
had raised. 

Knob Creek ran near their cabin home, 
and in its quiet "holes" of water the 
children often saw fish, which sometimes 
made them a good meal. 

On the edge of the clearing, where the 
giant Kentucky hills lifted their tall 
tops, the children wandered to pick the 
berries for their humble table. In the 
autumn they were kept busy gathering 
the brown nuts that came tumbling down 
from the trees. 

Years afterwards, Lincoln was asked 
what he remembered about the War of 
1 8 1 2 , then going on between the United 



Abraham Lincoln 



States and England. He replied: "Noth- 
ing but this. I had been fishing one day 




Rock Spring, on the farm where Lincoln was born 

and caught a little fish which I was taking 
home. I met a soldier in the road, and, 
having been always told at home that we 
must be good to the soldiers, I gave him 
my fish." 

This picture gives us a glimpse into 
the Lincoln household and shows us 
what teachings were going on there. 

From his good mother little Abe learned 
how to spell, and so quick and bright was 
he that when a strolling schoolmaster be- 
gan a school, to which boys and girls in 



The Man of the People 5 

their teens went, they were surprised to 
see Abe move up to the head of the class 
and stay there. 

In that early day preachers and 
churches were as scarce as teachers and 
schools. But to the village, three miles 
from the Lincoln home, there sometimes 
came a preacher. Then all the people, for 
miles and miles around, went to hear 
him preach. After these meetings little 
Abe, then but five years old, went home, 
mounted a stool, and imitated the min- 
ister in all those ways that strike a boyish 
imagination. 

In after years, when Lincoln sat in 
the White House, a friend one day said 
to him: ''How would you like, when the 
war is over, to visit your old home in 
Kentucky?" 

"I would like it very much," answered 
President Lincoln. "I remember that old 
home very well. Our farm was composed 
of three fields. It lay in the valley sur- 
rounded by high hills and deep gorges. 
Sometimes when there came a big rain 



6 Abraham Lincoln 

in the hills the water would come down 
through the gorges and spread all over the 
farm." 

Frontier Life in Indiana 

When little Abe reached the age of 
seven, in the very year that Indiana 
became a state, Thomas Lincoln moved 
across the Ohio River. 

This trip was a big event in the life of 
this slowly budding boy. As they jour- 
neyed along, new sights and sounds met 
eye and ear. The forests seemed to grow 
greater. They were peopled with birds 
and beasts, and in larger numbers than 
they had known in their old home. The 
hills grew higher and the roads steeper 
as they came nearer the river. 

How beautiful the Ohio! To the minds 
of these children, so deep and so wide I 

When they had crossed the great stream 
that seemed to the children like a sea, 
they hired a wagon to haul their goods. 
How were they to make their way through 



The Man of the People 7 

the thick forests, sixteen miles from the 
river? Trees and bushes had to be cut 
down in order to make a road. The 
boy was too free and too happy to feel 
sad at leaving the old Kentucky home, 
or to be frightened at starting a new 
home in the Indiana woods. *^' 

The Lincolns finally came to the place 
where their home was to be. It was one 
mile and a half from what is now Gentry- 
ville, in Spencer County. Here there was 
plenty to do. The boy helped his father 
make a "half -faced camp," as the settlers 
called such buildings. It was fourteen 
feet square, with only three walls and no 
chimney. The fourth side was left open 
to the weather, to allow persons to pass 
in and out, and to permit a fire. This 
"shack," as it would be called to-day, had 
a rude covering for a roof. The hard 
earth furnished a floor. 

In the days of warm sunshine which 
belong to southern Indiana, this camp did 
very well, but when the cold and snow of 
winter carae, it was indeed a poor sort of a 



Abraham Lincoln 



house. Little Abe and his ax were busy 
keeping the fire burning brightly. 

But he had other duties; there was a 
clearing to make. The trees had to be 
cut down, trimmed, and then cut into logs 
so they could be rolled together in great 
piles and burned. The ground so cleared 
was planted in the spring, the larger part 
in corn. 

When the corn grew ripe it was tried 
on a "gritter." This was a rude affair 
made of a piece of fiat tin 
punched full of holes, and 
then nailed to a board with 
the rough side turned up. 
An ear of corn was rubbed 
over the gritter 
until the grains 
had been rubbed 
down to the cob. 
Thus did the Lin- 
- coins probably first 
obtain fresh "corn 

Hominy mortar, sourds. and dodger,*" bakcd 

'''''' ll'coi'n'fumT ''' from the meal 





A Dutch oven 



The Man of the People g 

obtained in this rude way. But when the 

corn grew drier, so that it could be 

shelled, little Abe was put 

astride a horse to carry a 

bagful to mill, seven miles 

through the thick woods. 

After reaching there, he had 

to wait his turn. When his 

time came, the miller poured 

the corn into the hopper, 

and then turned the crank until it was 

ground out. After the people grew in 

numbers, Abe went to a "horse mill," 

where his horse furnished the power that 

turned the crank. When the corn was 

ground Abe once more mounted his horse, 

upon the bag of meal, and rode home. 

At home, his mother baked fresh corn 
bread in an old Dutch oven, or in a skillet. 
Perhaps, to give Abe and his sister a treat, 
she baked a ''johnny cake." This sort of 
bread was baked on a smooth board, 
before a red-hot fire. 

In the jneantime, Thomas Lincoln had 
been busy cutting down trees and cutting 



10 Abraham Lincoln 

off logs, to make a real cabin. This house 
contained but one room and a loft, up 
to which the future President climbed on 
pegs driven into the wall. In the corner 
of the loft was little Abe's bed. It was a 
pile of leaves. The cabin had no doors to 
shut out the cold and rain. The windows 
were without glass, and the earth again 
furnished a floor for the cabin. 

The furniture was very rude. Thomas 
Lincoln and his son made it with whatever 
tools they had. The table and chairs were 
made of rough slabs of wood, split from 
trees, with the top smoothed off. The 
bedstead was a frame of poles held up by 
two outer posts, the ends made firm by 
driving poles into auger holes that had 
been bored into the wall of the cabin. The 
coverings for this bed were the skins 
of bear and deer which the father had 
brought down in the forest with his rifle. 

In this lowly home the sad, sweet-faced 
mother taught her boy how to read and 
write. He was now eight years old, and 
was a large boy for his age. The mother 



The Man oj the People 



II 



must have caught some signs of the 
brightness of mind he was afterwards to 
show. There was something about the 
boy to attract people. Even at this early 




From "Stories of HeroiBm," by Wm. H. Mace 

The grave of Nancy Hanks Lincoln 

age he showed unusual kindness of heart 
and great sympathy with anything he 
found suffering. 

Shortly after the new cabin was finished, 
friends and relatives of the Lincolns from 
Kentucky moved to Indiana, and some of 
them camped in the old "shack." Very 
soon there came some kind of sickness into 
the Pigeon Creek Settlement, as Lincoln's 



12 Abraham Lincoln 

neighborhood was called. No doctor 
could do anything with it. Finally Lin- 
coln's mother was stricken. When the poor 
woman felt she must die, she called her boy 
to her bedside and said to him: "I am 
going away from you, Abraham, and shall 
not return. I know that you will be a good 
boy ; that you will be kind to Nancy and 
to your father. I want you to Hve as I 
have taught you, and to love your Heav- 
enly Father." Many years afterwards, 
when Lincoln had become famous, he 
declared, "All that I am, or hope to be, I 
owe to my angel mother." 

The death of his mother was the first 
real sorrow that little Abe had ever known. 
It cut him to the heart to think that his 
mother had been buried without the tender 
words of a minister of the Gospel. He 
brooded over it until he finally decided to 
send a letter to Kentucky asking his old 
friend, the Rev. David Elkin, to Indiana 
to preach his mother's funeral sermon. 
The good man came to speak the last sad 
words in memory of Nancy Hanks Lincoln. 



The Man oj the People ij 

In after years, a noble man raised a 
stone over her grave, bearing the following 
words: "Nancy Hanks Lincoln, mother 
of President Lincoln; died October 5th, 
A.D. 1818, aged 35 years. Erected by a 
friend of her martyred son, 1879." 

For a year the family had a bitter time. 
Nancy was the new housekeeper, just 
twelve years old. She baked the "corn 
dodger," and fried the bacon, and kept the 
house as well as she knew how. But we 
can well believe the family had a hard 
time keeping cheerful. 

In the autumn Thomas Lincoln went 
back to Kentucky and married a widow. 
A few days later Abraham and Nancy 
were greatly surprised to see a four- 
horse wagon loaded with furniture driven 
up to their lowly cabin in the woods. In 
all their lives they had not seen such a 
show of fine things. And now comes a 
new mother and a new brother and new 
sisters. The two children were in tatters, 
and must have noticed the better clothes 
of the newcomers. But it was not for 



H 



Abrah am Lincoln 



long, for the new mother took hold of 

things in earnest and soon had as good 

clothes on Abraham 

and his sister as upon 

the others. 

Thomas Lincoln was 
stirred by the example 
of his new wife, and 
soon a door was hung, 
a floor was laid, and 
windows were provided 
for the cabin. Pros- 
pects brightened, and 
contentment came to 
Lincoln's stepmother, smile on that Cabin in 

Sarah Bush Lincoln, , j 

*/ the age of seventy-six tuC WOOuS. 




Lincoln at School 

Mrs. Lincoln very soon saw that 
Abraham was a child of unusual abilit3^ 
She learned to love the great, awkward 
boy for his kind and gentle nature. She 
encouraged him in every way she could 
to study and improve himself. 




-4 leaf from Lincoln' :> exercise book 



1 6 Abraham Lincoln 

Abraham studied reading, writing, spell- 
ing, and arithmetic in a schoolhouse built 
by the neighbors. But the boys of this 
school were bent upon having fun. 
They wrestled, threw weights, and often 
indulged in fisticuffs. Abraham loved 
to learn, but he also loved all outdoor 
sports, except fighting. He never began a 
quarrel, and he permitted no one to pick 
a quarrel with him. Frequently the boys 
chose him to settle their differences, be- 
cause he was sure to do what was right. 

Three or four years went by. Abraham 
was fourteen when the next school was 
opened, some five miles from home. His 
third school in Indiana began when he was 
seventeen. He practiced writing with 
pen and ink. He was careful to copy 
tables, rules, and sums for future use, 
when the textbook might not be handy. 
The sums with which he took so much 
care were those of long measure, land 
measure, and dry measure. If we count 
all the time Abraham went to school we 
shall find it to be about one year. 




o 



xi 






^ 



i8 



Abraham Lincoln 



A lazy boy would have forgotten what 
he learned at one school before the next 
school began. Abraham made use of 
every bit of knowledge he gained to help 
him on to something better. 

His stepmother bore loving witness to his 
desire to know. "Abe read diligently. . . . 
He read every book he could lay his hands 
on; and, 'when he came across a passage 
that struck him, he would write it down 
on boards if he had no paper, and keep it 

there until he 
did get paper. 
Then he would 
re write it, look 
at it, repeat 
it." 

Before the 
fire, in evening 
time, young 
Lincoln would 
often seize the 
board shovel 
and cover it 

After a painting by Eaitmin Johnson . , 

Lincoln reading by the light of the fire With SUmS. 




**^--r 



The Man of the People ig 

Then he would take a shaving knife, shave 
off the sums, and begin again. Such a 
student would soon be far ahead of his 
companions. John Hanks, one of the boys 
that grew up with Lincoln, says, "When 
Abe and I returned to the house from 
work he would go to the cupboard, snatch 
a piece of corn bread, take down a book, 
sit down, cock his legs up as high as his 
head, and read." Books were few in that 
pioneer state, and Abraham had a hard 
time finding enough of them. He read 
the Bible, and reread it. He read in the 
same way Robinson Crusoe, ^sop's Fables, 
Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, Weems' Life 
of Washington, and a history of the United 
States. He read them until he knew 
them. They were Hke old friends. 

Too poor to own books, he borrowed 
them from the neighbors. One book he 
came to own in a curious way. He per- 
mitted Weems' Life of Washington to get 
wet. The owner charged him three days' 
work at pulHng fodder for the wet book. 
Lincoln was now the proud owner of a 



20 



Abraham Lincoln 



Life of Washington. He read over and 
over again the many interesting stories 




Some o/ Lincoln s books 

told by Weems. Washington stood out 
in his mind as one of the greatest men 
that ever lived. 

As he grew older his longing to read 
increased. He told a friend once that he 
"read through every book he had ever 
heard of in that county, for a circuit of 
fifty miles." He even kept a book in the 
"cracks of his loft" so that he might read 
at peep of day. 

When he became a plowboy in the 
newly cleared, stumpy fields, he was often 



The Man of the People 21 

seen perched on a stump reading while 
the horse rested. 

When Lincoln was in his teens a friend 
living in Rockport, not far away, had a 
good library. He let young Lincoln use 
it to his heart's content. 

Lincoln a Favorite 

Lincoln was always a favorite with the 
small boys, for he could never bear to 
see a large boy *'run over" the smaller 
ones. He always took the small boy's part 
when the quarrel was just. 

With so many persons in that one-room 
cabin, it was a miracle that Mrs. Lincoln 
kept the children from quarreling. But 
Abraham was peacemaker also, and gen- 
erally kept the family in good humor 
by his quaint stories, or by his explana- 
tions, in simple language, of something he 
had read. Mrs. Lincoln long afterwards 
gave loving words in his favor: "I can 
say, what scarcely one mother in a thou- 
sand can say, Abe never gave me a cross 
word or look, and never refused in fact or 



22 Abraham Lincoln 

appearance to do anything I asked him. 
. I had a son John, who was raised 
with Abe. Both were good boys, but I 
must say, both now being dead, that Abe 
was the best boy I ever saw, or expect to 
see." 

Abe was a favorite in all kinds of frontier 
parties, such as house raisings, log roll- 
ings, corn huskings, and spelling matches, 
or any other kind of gathering which 
belonged to the rude life of the frontier. 
To the fun and frohc of such events 
Abraham could add the spice of telling 
stories. At the spelling school he was 
leader. Nobody could "spell him down." 
He was always the first to be chosen, for 
whoever won him , won the match . Finally 
he was ruled out and had to pronounce 
the words for the rest of the spellers. 

Young Lincoln possessed another gift 
that made him a rare favorite in a 
backwoods audience — the ability to imi- 
tate. His power to mimic persons he had 
heard was, in that rude time, quite an 
accomplishment. On some occasions he 



The Man of the People 2j 

mounted a stump or log, and imitated 

the gestures and tone of voice of some 
itinerant preacher. At other times, after 
he had been to the county seat and 
listened to some lawyer trying a case, 
he held a mock trial and indulged in 
oratory that he had heard in the court 
room. 

It is apt to be a boy's ambition to 
become a writer of rhymes. Most chil- 
dren have this ** disease," like an attack 
of measles, but once in a lifetime. But 
Lincoln kept plodding away at it until 
he really learned the art of making verses. 
A few of the jingles with which he used to 
amuse himself and the boys around him 
have come down to us. This verse is 
taken from his copy book : 

Abraham Lincoln, 
his hand and pen; 
he will be good but 
God knows when. 

In writing a "copy" for a friend he 

produced this: 

Good boys, who to their books apply, 
Will all be great men by and by. 



24 Abraham Lincoln 

Later the pen of the ambitious young 
backwoodsman took another turn. One 
time he was working for a farmer. This 
farmer treated Lincoln unfairly, and be- 
cause he was easily teased about his nose 
young Lincoln took revenge by mak- 
ing rhymes about it. The farmer's nose 
was long and crooked, and when Lincoln 
finished his rhyming it surely did not 
appear any shorter or straighter. To the 
people of Gentryville this was a new way 
of "getting even," and it gave them a 
still higher opinion of young Lincoln's 
ability. 

Great Physical and Mental Powers 

In the friendly trials of muscle, Lincoln 
at the age of nineteen was the first man of 
his neighborhood. He grew so fast and 
so large that before he had reached this 
age he w^as six feet and four inches tall. 
His arms and legs were long and strong. 
He had very big hands and feet. He not 
only excelled older boys than himself in 
reading and reasoning, but he was easily 



The Man of the People 25 

the champion when it came to trials of 
physical strength. 

( He could outrun, out jump, outlift, and 
outwrestle the boys of his own age. He 
could chop down trees quicker, and split 
rails easier, than men far older. The 
mighty swing of his ax was so powerful 
that he buried it deep in the trees. He was 
in great demand, therefore, 
at all house raisings and 
log rollings. ) 

Three men were disput- 
ing one day as to how they 
should join in carrying a Lincoln's ax 
great log, when Lincoln stepped in, coolly 
picked up the log, and carried it where it 
was wanted. 

It was knowledge, not money, that 
Abraham wanted. He plowed fields, hoed 
corn, swung the scythe, flailed wheat, and 
chopped down trees to get books. He 
"would walk farther and work harder to 
get an old book than any one else around 
him would walk or work to get a new 
dollar bill.''^ 




26 Abraham Lincoln 

He walked every week to the village 
store to read the newspaper, which came 
from Louisville. Some of the people liked 
to hear him read bits of great debates in 
Congress, and to listen to his odd say- 
ings about the men and their views. 
Sometimes he read news from the great 
world about which the men in the back- 
woods village knew so little. 

Lincoln used to astonish people by 
telling them that the sun did not move 
nor the moon go up or down, that it was 
really the earth that did the moving, 
sinking, and rising. Such ideas were 
strongly disputed by some of the people 
of that age in Indiana. 

Abraham could not bear to see his lit- 
tle dumb friends mistreated. So he wrote 
an essay on "Cruelty to Animals." He 
hated strong drink, and was always a 
temperate man. He saw around him 
many of the evils from drinking too much 
whisky. The pioneers always used whisky 
at gatherings. Seldom, if ever, was there 
a voice raised against it. But Lincoln 



The Man of the People 2y 

was bold enough to write an essay on 
"Temperance." A preacher, struck by 
its reasoning, had it published in a news- 
paper. 

Later Lincoln made another effort, this 
time in the direction of politics. He 
wrote a paper on **The American Govern- 
ment." In this essay young Lincoln took 
the ground that the "Constitution ought 
to be preserved and the Union ought to 
be kept from breaking up." Could it be 
that Lincoln had found in the debates in 
Congress a hint of the doctrines that some 
of its members were beginning to preach? 
A lawyer, after reading the pow^erful 
appeal in behalf of the Union, declared 
that "the world couldn't beat it." 

A New World Opens 

The Ohio River brought young Lin- 
coln a new opportunity. The work of 
carrying people across the river, or of 
taking them out in a rowboat to meet 
some passing steamer, brought Lincoln 
into new company. 



28 



Abraham Lincoln 



Long years afterwards, Lincoln told his 
great Secretary of State, Mr. Seward, this 
story of his boyhood days. "Did you ever 
hear how I earned my first dollar? 
After much persuasion, I had got the con- 
sent of my mother to go and construct a 




-^- Xjii^§:£k 



A Mississippi River flatboal 

flatboat. ... I was wondering whether I 
could make it stronger when two men with 
trunks came down to the shore in car- 
riages and, looking at the different boats, 
singled out mine, and asked, 'Who owns 
this?' 'I do.' 'Will you take us and 
our trunks out to the steamer?' 'Cer- 
tainly,' said L I was very glad to have 
the chance of earning something, and 
supposed that each of them would give 



The Man oj the People 2g 

me a couple of bits. The trunks were 
put in my boat, and I sculled them out to 
1;he steamer. They got on board, and I 
lifted the trunks and put them on the 
deck. The steamer was about to put on 
steam again, when I called out, 'You have 
forgotten to pay me.' Each of them took 
from his pocket a silver half-dollar and 
threw it on the bottom of my boat. I 
could scarcely believe my eyes, . . . that I, 
the poor boy, had earned a dollar in less 
than a day. ... I was a more hopeful and 
thoughtful boy from that time." 

The leading man in the village near 
where Lincoln lived chose Lincoln as 
"bow hand" on his flatboat bound for 
New Orleans. This, indeed, was a big 
event in the life of this boy-man ! It took 
him away from the neighborhood, out of 
the company of the "nobodies" who lived 
around him. 

Mr. Gentry, for it was he that hired him, 
loaded his boat with corn, flour, pork, 
bacon, and other things which he could 
sell, and put his son Allan and Lincoln on 



JO Abraham Lincoln 

board and started them for New Orleans. 
Down the beautiful Ohio they floated until 
the Mississippi was reached. There they 
noticed changes in the trees and birds. 
Here and there a settler's clearing broke 
the dense forest. How lonely life must 
have been in those solitary cabins! 
Then Memphis was not the large city of 
to-day, but was made up of a few scattered 
cabins. At times Lincoln saw a great 
puffing steamboat going up or down the 
river. How insignificant seemed their 
small fiatboat compared with this throb- 
bing giant with its load of merchandise 
and passengers! 

When they reached Louisiana they 
were indeed in a strange region. They 
saw for the first time "live oaks," and 
other trees all festooned with gray-green 
moss, as if some one had hung it from 
branch to branch. They heard strange 
tongues, for they were now among people 
some of whom spoke either French or 
Spanish. 

One night, after the boat was tied up 



The Man of the People 



31 



to shore, these two boys were set upon 
by a gang of negroes, coming to rob them. 




A courtyard in New Orleans 

The boys leaped from their bunks, rushed 
out, and fell upon the negroes. Lincoln 
knocked two into the river, young Gentry 



j2 Abraham Lincoln 

knocked one of them down, and the 
others, frightened by the fate of their 
companions, took to their heels. The boys 
cut their boat loose and swung out into 
the river, where they could not be reached 
easily. 

On they floated until New Orleans was 
in view. Here were strange sights indeed ! 
Here they beheld a city situated below the 
river! The streets were below the great 
levees, or banks of earth, which had been 
put there by the Government to protect 
the city from the river. Scores of boats 
like theirs were to be seen at the wharves 
of the great city. Many steamboats also 
were there, some loading and some unload- 
ing their cargoes. The boys saw that 
most of the work was done by slaves. 

The cargo and boat both sold, the boys 
returned to Indiana on a steamboat. 
Mr. Gentry paid Lincoln eight dollars per 
month and his passage home on the 
steamboat. How can we tell how this 
trip of more than a thousand miles may 
have influenced Lincoln's life? 



The Man of the People jj 

Lincoln Leaves the Indiana Woods 
for the Illinois Prairies 

A few years after Lincoln's return 
from this voyage, his father caught the 
"fever" for moving to Illinois. John Hanks 
had already gone, and had written letters 
back to Indiana that awoke 
in Thomas Lincoln the desire 
to "move." Of course, John 
Hanks and his family were 
lonesome, and longed for their 
relatives and friends in Indi- whau-on lamp 

from the Lincoln 

ana. Besides, here were great ^^« ^^^^^ 
wide prairies with the richest soil. Along 
the streams were the finest kinds of oak, 
maple, walnut, and gum trees. If Thomas 
Lincoln would come to Illinois, John 
Hanks would choose one hundred sixty 
acres of good land for him, and would 
have the logs already cut for his cabin. 

This was more than the Lincolns could 
stand! They decided to go. There were 
no railroads then, no bridges across the 
streams, and no canals cut through the 




J4 Abraham Lincoln 

country. They must go in wagons drawn 
by oxen! They held a sale to get rid of 
those things they did not, or could not, 
take with them. The neighbors for miles 
around came to see them start and to 
say good-by. Many a boy and girl, no 
doubt, felt sorry to say "good-by" to the 
tall, awkward, but kindly young fellow 
who had been the center of so much fun 
for the neighborhood. 

As he was leaving the place on Pigeon 
Creek, a boy planted a cedar to keep alive 
the memory of young Lincoln. Little did 
he, or any one else, think that this would 
not be the only monument to the memory 
of Abraham Lincoln! 

The hurry and bustle of getting started 
took his attention, as it did that of the 
others. Abraham was just the one to drive 
the four-ox team which drew his father's 
wagon . The wagon was very old -fashioned . 
The wheels had no hubs, no spokes, and 
no tires, for they were made from rounded 
blocks of wood sawed from the end of 
some oak or maple tree. A hole was made 



The Man of the People jj 

in the center for the axle of the wagon to 
rest in. The patient oxen were driven 
without lines. They obeyed Abraham's 
voice and the motion of the whip every 
ox driver was sure to carry. 

On they went, crossing creeks and rivers, 
through the woods and out upon the broad 
prairies. At nighttime they camped, if 
possible, where there was plenty of wood 
and water. They cooked their meals of 
bacon and corn bread by the fire. When 
the meal was over, they sat around the 
fire and told stories, and then the women 
climbed into the wagon to find a bed. 
But the men, rolled in bearskins or other 
covering, slept before the fire. Meantime 
the oxen had been tied with long ropes to 
enable them to graze, and to keep them 
from straying too far. 

They made for the poorer timber lands 
on the Sangamon River, where they foimd 
that John Hanks had kept his word, and 
the logs were cut for the cabin. 

They settled in Macon County, ten miles 
west of Decatur. Here young Lincoln cut 



j6 A braham Lincoln 

and split rails enough to fence ten acres of 
land. Corn was planted and ' ' tended' ' and 
the crop harvested during the first season. 
When the summer of 1830 came around 
Lincoln was past twenty-one. He had, 
up to this time, turned his money over to 
his father. Now^ he meant to work for 
himself. The first work he must do was 
to get himself a pair of trousers, for his old 
ones were about worn out. He engaged 
to split four hundred rails for every yard 
of cloth, colored a butternut brown, 
which it took to make him a pair of 
trousers. It took fourteen hundred rails 
to pay for the trousers ! 

The Second Trip to New Orleans 

Lincoln had become acquainted with a 
trader named Offutt, who talked a great 
deal of the things he expected to do. 
Lincoln, John Hanks, and John Johnston 
hired out to Offutt to take a flatboat 
laden with provisions to New Orleans. 

They got a large canoe and floated 



The Man of the People 



37 



down the Sangamon River to the place 
where Jamestown now stands, then walked 
to Springfield, where they were to meet 




Model of Lincoln's device for lifting vessels over shoals 



Offutt. He had bad news: he could get 
no flatboat at Beardstown, the place 
from which they expected to begin their 
journey. Lincoln promptly said: *Xet 
us make one." He could use tools and 
had studied the plan of a flatboat when 
he had taken a trip to New Orleans before. 
The bargain was struck. A "shanty" was 
built on the river bank, in which the men 
slept and cooked and ate their meals. 
Lincoln took the lead as head carpenter. 

In April the boat was loaded and the 
boatmen bade good-by to the rustic crowd 
that gathered to see them off. They 
"poled" their way down the vSangamon 
until New Salem was reached. Here a 



^8 Abraham Lincoln 

milldam had been built, and on this dam 
the flatboat stuck fast. They could neither 
push it over nor draw it back. A crowd 
gathered and watched the men trying to 
move the boat. Some of them laughed at 
one of the crew, tall, gaunt, and ugly, with 
ragged coat and battered hat. His trousers 
were torn and patched. He made rather a 
forlorn picture. A few of the crowd were 
bold enough to offer their advice, but no 
attention was paid to it. Lincoln thought 
the matter over and finally decided what 
should be done. The men agreed, and 
went to work at the boat. It finally 
moved over the dam in safety, and the 
crew "poled" on their way and left the 
crowd wondering about the awkward and 
overgrown fellow. 

On they went, down the Illinois to the 
Mississippi and down that river until 
New Orleans was reached. Lincoln must 
have tied the boat up where lay many 
other such boats, and where there were 
hundreds of flatboatmen from the "up 
country." New Orleans was growing 



The Man of the People 



39 



rapidly, and had many interesting sights 
for young Lincoln's eyes. 

One day he came upon a negro auction. 
It was indeed a new and a sad sight for 




Thf house Lincoln helped his father build in Coles County 

Lincoln. It is told that after looking at 
this scene for a time, he said: ''Boys, let's 
get away from this. If ever I get a 
chance to hit that thing, I'll hit it hard!" 
From New Orleans, Lincoln and his 
companions took passage on a noisy, 
puffing steamboat for St. Louis. From 
St. Louis, Lincoln walked all the way to 
Coles County, Illinois, where his father's 
family had already gone. He helped his 
father in building the best house he had 



40 



Abraham Lincoln 



ever lived in. It was made of "hewn" 
logs and contained two rooms. This was 
the last time Lincoln saw his father. 

Clerk in a Country Store 

From Coles County, Lincoln went to 
New Salem, where he had agreed to become 
a clerk in a store owned by Oifutt. But, 




Copyright by Francis D. Tandy Company, New York 

Interior of the Lincoln cabin at Goose Neck Prairie, Illinois 

as usual, Offutt had done more bragging 
than work, and neither Offutt nor the 
"store things" had come. 



The Man of the People 41 

Lincoln had to wait. This meant that 
he had plenty of time to become acquainted 
with the villagers, about one hundred in 
all. The crowd remembered Lincoln as 
that queer fellow who had got Offutt's 
flatboat over the dam while they were 
laughing at the crew. Now Lincoln had 
a chance to show what he could do in a 
very different way. An election was to 
be held in the town of New Salem. One 
of the clerks was sick. Lincoln was 
asked if he could write. He said that he 
"could make a few rabbit tracks." At 
that time not many people in New Salem 
could write, so "rabbit tracks" were good 
enough. Lincoln was "sworn in." Every 
voter came up to the table where the 
judges and the clerks sat with a poll 
book before them. The voter told them 
for whom he wished to vote. His vote 
was then written down, and then another 
voter came. When voting became slow 
Lincoln entertained the crowd with his 
droll stories. 

Offutt's goods came, and the young 



42 



Abraham Lincoln 



flatboatman took his place in the store. 
Offutt added a mill to his business 
and put Lincoln in full charge of both 
store and mill. He had full confidence 








After a painting in the State Capitol at Spriugficld 

A view of New Salem 

in Lincoln's honesty. The people who 
traded with him learned to believe in him. 
One evening, so the story runs, as Lincoln 
was putting the shutters on, a woman 
came in and bought half a pound of tea. 
The next morning Lincoln was surprised 
to see from the weights on the scale that 
he had given the woman a quarter of a 



The Man of the People 4J 

pound instead of what she had called for- 
He closed the store and carried her the 
quarter of a pound of tea. He could not 
rest until he had made it right with the 
woman. 

The store became a meeting place for 
young and old. Here met the men from 
the town and the men from the country. 
They talked over the news of the day. 
Now and then they told stories, but more 
often they sat in open-mouthed wonder 
while Lincoln told one of his stories. 
Lincoln learned a great deal from the 
crowd of happy loungers that came to 
Offutt's store, some of it useful and some 
not. But it was a strange thing to see 
Lincoln joining in the fun and laughter 
of that rude crowd without himself being 
made ruder and coarser by it. 

Offutt was proud of his big clerk. He 
declared one day that Lincoln could "lift 
more than any other man in Sangamon 
County, and when it came to wrestling, 
he could throw the whole crowd." Just 
like boys, there were a number of young 



44 



Abraham Lincoln 



men who 
challenge. 



took Oifutt's words as a 
These young fellows were 
called the "Clary's Grove 
Boys." They were a rough 
lot, and kept the village 
from becoming too sleepy. 
They told the storekeeper to 
"trot out" his big clerk and 
he would find Jack Arm- 
strong a match for him. 
Lincoln did not wish to 
wrestle. He probably felt 
better things were in store 
for him. But there was no 
escape. If he did not do it 
the entire country round 
Salem would believe that 
he was afraid of Jack Armstrong. 

The day was set, and Clary's Grove 
was against New Salem. Most of the 
fellows took Jack Armstrong's side. They 
knew what he could do. But when the 
wrestlers took hold, Jack Armstrong had 
met his master. Do all he could, he could 
not throw Lincoln. He tried the tricks 




A matron of New 
Salem, showing the 

leghorn bonnet 
worn in 

Lincoln's day 

about New 



The Man of the People 45 

that had won him so many victories, but 
all in vain. Finally he was put to it so 
hard that he tried a **foul." This act 
made Lincoln angry. He caught Arm- 
strong by the throat and, with his long 
arms, "shook him like a child." 

When the wrestling match was over Jack 
Armstrong grasped Lincoln's hand and 
declared that he was the "best fellow who 
ever broke into the camp." The "Clary's 
Grove Boys" liked Lincoln because he 
did not "crow" over his victory. He had 
won his. way to their hearts, and ever 
afterwards they were his true friends. 

But better than clerking in the store, 
and far better than practicing the art 
of wrestling, Lincoln loved learning. A 
friend told him about "grammar, and said 
he ought to study it if he was going to 
appear before the public. Lincoln had 
alread}^ made a number of speeches. 

When his friend told him there was but 
one grammar in the neighborhood, and 
that was six miles away, Lincoln walked 
the whole distance and obtained the book. 



46 



Abraham Lincoln 



From now on he gave much time to study- 
ing grammar. He often handed the book 
to a friend to hold while he recited 
definitions and rules. When he was not 



I r..l 



If >| U. jl, ji|- 





Frcm tL« '■ Menard-Salem-Lineoln bouvenir Album," 
courtesy the Women's Columbian Club of Menard Co. 



A New Salem interior, showing the furniture and costumes 
of Lincoln's time 

sure of the meaning he called in the 
school teacher. Lincoln learned grammar 
not only to know it, but to use it. He 
was putting what he learned into practice. 
But the store was "petering out," to use 
Lincoln's own words. Its owner owed 
more than he could pay, and the store was 



The Man of the People 47 

"closed up." Lincoln was out of a job, 
but he soon found something to do. 

He was without doubt the most popular 
man in New Salem. He was only a little 
more than twenty-two years old, yet he 
had really thought of asking the peo- 
ple to vote for him to help make their 
laws, that is, to elect him to the State 
Legislature. His friends encouraged him, 
and we may suppose that the ** Clary's 
Grove Boys" were for Lincoln. 

He printed a statement declaring that 
he was in favor of making their own river, 
the Sangamon, fit for steamboats, and in 
favor of putting a stop to charging high 
rates of interest by passing a law against 
it. On the question of education, he said : 
"I can only say that I view it as the 
most important subject which we as a 
people can be engaged in." He asked 
the people to overlook his youth, and 
declared that he had spoken the truth. 

Not long after Lincoln had sent out these 
handbills, the people of his county were 
excited by the news that a steamboat 



48 Abraham Lincoln 

from Cincinnati intended to bring a load 
of goods up the Sangamon River. This 
was good news. Meetings were held at 
towns on the ;iver to make plans for 
the coming of the steamboat. Finally 
word came that the boat was on its way. 
Lincoln went down the river to Beards- 
town to meet it. He was made pilot to 
guide the boat the rest of the way up, for 
he knew more about the river than most 
men. At every stop the boat made there 
was great shouting. Speeches were made, 
toasts were drunk, and in every way the 
people showed how happy they were. But 
the happiest man was Lincoln. Was not 
this steamboat proving that the Sanga- 
mon could be made fit for boats which 
could carry what they raised to market, 
and brag goods to them from the great 
cities of the world? After a week had 
gone by the boat started down the river. 
In the meantime the "high water" had 
run out and Lincoln had a harder time 
to get the boat down the river than he 
had had to get it up. 



The Man of the People 



49 



Captain Lincoln 

Hardly had Lincoln returned from his 
work as pilot, when all of Illinois was 
stirred by the news of Black 
Hawk's war. Black Hawk was 
an Indian chief. He had a 
bad name among the frontier 
whites. 

The governor called the 
men of the state to arms, and 
Lincoln and the boys of New 
Salem started immediately to 
the place of meeting. Only 
a part of them had rifles. No 
one had a regular uniform, but 
some had deerskin breeches 
and a few wore coonskin caps. 
Every man had come to fight the In- 
dians ! They must have a captain. There 
on that village green at Richland, Illi- 
nois, were two persons who wanted to be 
captain. One was Lincoln. Already he 
felt that he was going to be a "master 
of men." The men who wanted to be 

4 




Aft officer in the 
Black Hawk War 




Choosing LtHcoln captain 



The Man of the People 



51 



captain stepped to different parts of the 
ground, and the other men immediately 
flocked around their favor- 
ites. Lincoln was greatly 
surprised and pleased to find 
that three fourths of the 
"boys" were on his side. We 
may be sure that the "Clary's 
Grove Boys" were among the 
first to go to Lincoln's side. 
This was probably the first 
time any part of the people 
had a chance to show their 

Powder horn, knife, 

loveforyouneLmcom. Long and tomahawk 

J ^ ^ used in the 

afterwards he declared, "I Biack Hawk war 
have not had any success in life which 
gave me so much satisfaction." 

Very little did Lincoln know about army 
rules. The men obeyed him because they 
admired him. But in this campaign 
against the Indians some of Lincoln's 
qualities were brought out strongly. One 
day an old, friendly Indian came into 
Lincoln's camp bearing a letter from 
General Lewis Cass. The very sight of an 




52 Abraham Lincoln 

Indian set the soldiers on fire. They were 
for killing him right off, and started after 
him. Lincoln saw he must be. quick, and 
sprang between the Indian and the men, 
declaring that he would shoot the first 
man who laid hands on him. 

But it was around the camp fire that 
Captain Lincoln was at his best. He told 
the soldiers many quaint tales, and won 
a name as a joker. This bit of military 
life gave Lincoln a wider view of men and 
things. He saw regular soldiers, how they 
w^ere uniformed, drilled, and armed. At 
the same time he became acquainted with 
men from different parts of the state. 

Trying to Get Oflfice 

Lincoln got back to New Salem only a 
few days before the election which he w^as 
getting ready for when the Black Hawk 
War broke out. The men who had been 
in Lincoln's company and the men who 
knew him at New Salem were working 
hard to get him votes. 



The Man of the People 5J 

Only a few chances came to Lincoln to 
speak to the voters. He heard of a sale 
several miles away. He knew that nearly 
every one went to a sale in those days, 
and he knew candidates for office would be 
there. Lincoln went, too, a tall young 
man, wearing a blue jeans, claw hammer, 
bobtail coat, tow-and-wool trousers, cow- 
hide boots, and a straw hat! 

When Lincoln's time came to speak he 
said: ''Gentlemen and Fellow-citizens, I 
presume you all know who I am. I am 
humble Abraham Lincoln. . . . My 
politics are short and sweet, like the old 
woman's dance. ... If elected, I shall 
be thankful; if not, it will be all the 
same." 

While he was speaking, a drunken fellow 
began quarreling with one of Lincoln's 
friends. Lincoln sprang from the plat- 
form, seized the bully by the neck, and 
threw him out of the crowd. Then he 
returned to the stand, and continued 
speaking as if nothing had happened. 

The people of Illinois were dividing into 



54 Abraham Lincoln 

two parties — the Democratic and the 
Whig. Those who shouted for a great 
soldier, Andrew Jackson, who had already 
been President once, were Democrats. 
Those who followed the teachings of 
another great man, Henry Clay, were 
called Whigs. The great majority of the 
people of Illinois were for Jackson. But 
Lincoln was a Whig, whose idol was 
Henry Clay. He had small chance of 
being elected, for he was not yet widely 
known. 

Lincoln was defeated, the only time in 
his life when the people voted. But in 
New Salem he won two hundred seventy- 
seven votes out of three hundred! 

Lincoln's National Debt 

Offutt's store had failed and Lincoln 
had nothing to do. He felt then that 
he must meet and talk with men. 
Books and men were to be his compan- 
ions. He joined with a young man named 
Berry, and bought a store in New Salem. 



The Man of the People 



55 



Berry was no richer than Lincoln, so 
they went in debt for the store. There 
were two other stores in the village. Lin- 
coln and Berry bought them out in the 
same way — by promising to pay! 




Berry and Lincoln's store as it looked in 1895 



One day a man moving West sold Lin- 
coln a barrel. In that barrel filled with 
rubbish Lincoln found a copy of that great 
law book, Blackstone's Commentaries. 
During the long summer days, when the 
farmers were busy at home and customers 



5<5 Abraham Lincoln 

were few, Lincoln was busy with his Black- 
stone. He lay in the shade of a large tree 
near the store, and read to his heart's con- 
tent. Unfortunately, Berry w^as **busy" 
in the back end of the store, where strong 
drink was kept ! 

Berry drank and Lincoln read! The 
storekeeping w^as a failure. They sold 
out. The men gave their note just as 
Berry and Lincoln had done. Pretty 
soon the new storekeepers ran away, and 
Berry died. Lincoln had to shoulder the 
entire debt. He told the men whom he 
owed that he had no money, but that they 
should have it as soon as he could get it. 
It w^as a mountain of debt to that poor 
young man. He called it his "national 
debt," by way of a joke. But it was no 
joke for a poor young man to pay out 
a thousand dollars in a country where 
money was scarce. He paid every cent 
of it — interest and all. It took him seven- 
teen years to do it ! What a burden to 
hang over one like a cloud! After that 
people called him "Honest Abe." 



The Man of the People 57 

Two Offices Given Lincoln by 
the Democrats 

Before he was out of the store Lincoln's 
friends asked President Jackson to make 
him postmaster at New Salem. The Presi- 
dent and many of Lincoln's friends were 
Democrats, but this made no difference. 
Being postmaster was not a big office, and 
it gave Lincoln time to read and study. 
It is said that he "carried the post office 
in his hat." When he met a person for 
whom he had a letter Lincoln took off 
his hat and handed him the letter. When 
he w^ent about the country he took the 
mail in his hat, and as he passed the 
cabins he handed it out. He was a sort 
of first Rural Free Dehvery. 

Pretty soon a better chance came to 
him. The surveyor of Sangamon County 
found he needed help. He sent word to 
Lincoln that he wanted him as deputy 
surveyor. Lincoln talked the matter 
over with the man and said he would 
take the position if he did not have to 



^8 Abraham Lincoln 

change his poHtics! The surveyor was a 
Democrat; Lincoln was a Whig. It was 
agreed. But Lincohi knew nothing about 
surveying. He obtained a book on sur- 
veying and began the work of mastering 
it. Day and night he studied, sometimes 




Lincoln's surveying instruments 

until early morning hours. He called upon 
his friend the school teacher for help. In 
a few weeks he reported for business. 

For every day's work as surveyor he 
received three dollars. A princely sum! 
He had never earned so much money 
for a day's work before. One great use 
to which he put his work as surveyor 
was to get acquainted with people. 

While he was acting as postmaster and 
surveyor, Lincoln never failed to do a 
kind deed when he saw a chance. The 
people of New Salem said Lincoln was 
"obliging." The children of the neighbor- 
hood all loved him. 



The Man of the People 5p 

Hannah, wife of Jack Armstrong, treated 
Lincoln like one of her family. **Abe 
would come out to our house, drink milk, 
eat mush, corn bread and butter, bring 
the children candy, and rock the cradle 
while I got him something to eat." 

It was but a short time before Lincoln 
had to have a horse. The surveyors had to 
go long distances. But 
Lincoln had no money. 
How was he to get a 
horse without money ? 
He bought one on credit LincoWs saddlebags 
and promised to pay at some future time. 
He obtained a pair of saddlebags, in 
which he carried a compass, a chain, his 
surveying books, and other useful things. 

But the man grew tired of waiting for 
his money, so one day an officer of the 
law stopped Lincoln, seized the horse, 
and was bound to have the money. But 
Lincoln could not pay. He was hardly 
able to find money for his board, and to 
keep himself in decent clothes. A friend 
came to his rescue, paid for the horse, and 




6o Abraham Lincoln 

turned him over to Lincoln. So it was 
that Lincoln found friends at every turn. 
Lincoln never forgot this act of friend- 
ship. Years aftenA^ard, when he was 
President and this old friend was living 
in California, he received a letter from 
Lincoln naming him for an office with a 
good salary. 

Elected to the State Legislature 

Two years had gone by since Lincoln's 
defeat. He had made many friends in 
that time. They encouraged young Lin- 
coln, and he finally told the people that 
he wanted their support for the State 
Legislature. 

During the spring and summer he 
went to all house raisings, horse races, 
shooting matches, sales, or auctions as 
we would say, wherever the people came 
together. This was just the sort of thing 
he liked best. He could be a judge at a 
horse race, make a speech on the Con- 
stitution, act as peacemaker between two 



The Man of the People 6i 

quarreling fellows in such a way as to 
leave them both thinking him the fairest 
and most honest man in the county. 

Lincoln's great strength, long reach of 
arm, and still longer legs, made him a 
great favorite in running, jumping, or 
wrestling. An old farmer has left us a 
story of the way Lincoln won votes. "He 
came to my house . . . during harvest," 
says the farmer. ''There were some thirty 
men in the field. He got his dinner and 
went out in the field where the men 
were at work. I gave him an introduc- 
tion, and the boys said that they could not 
vote for a man unless he could make a 
hand. 'Well, boys,' said he, 'if that is all, 
I am sure of your votes.' He took hold 
of the cradle, and led the way all the 
round with perfect ease. The boys were 
satisfied, and I don't think he lost a vote 
in the crowd." 

When the votes were counted, Lincoln 
was elected. He stood next to the high- 
est on the list. The people had stood 
by him. 



62 



Abraham Lincoln 



When Abraham Lincoln went to the 
town of VandaHa, the meeting place of the 
Legislature, he crossed a new line in life. 
He was still the same simple, unpretend- 




Ki»' 



The State House at Vandalia 



ing young man. He was still poor, and 
had to struggle. But he began in that 
Legislature to know, and to be known 
by, a different set of men. A great 
future was before him. Now indeed began 
a new world for Lincoln. But he never 
forgot his old friends, made in the days 
when he was young and most in need of 
friends. He never lost his love for children. 



The Man of the People 6j 

His home for many years had been in the 
woods, and New Salem was not much 
better. He had never before lived where 
there was a church. Vandalia was not a 
large town, but it was the meeting place 
of the Legislature. There he met some 
men who were already great men in the 
opinion of the state of Illinois, the gover- 
nor, a few judges, and still few^er members 
of the Legislature. Here Lincoln met 
Stephen A. Douglas for the first time, and 
little did he think that the "smallest man 
he ever saw" was the one man who was to 
be his greatest opponent in the battles of 
the future. From this time on, to the 
end of Douglas' life, first at long intervals 
but later more frequently, they continued 
to meet, and a fierce struggle was fought 
between these two men. 

Lincoln did not push himself to the 
front at Vandalia, but modestly kept a 
back seat. He learned a great deal from 
seeing how different men fought for their 
bills before the House. 

There was one thing in which he 



64 Abraham Lincoln 

was already experienced — shaking hands. 
When Lincoln took a man's hand in his 
he made that man feel that Lincoln's 
whole heart was in the greeting. 

In still another way Lincoln was the 
equal of any man in Vandalia. That was 
in his great power as a story-teller. We 
have noted this power in his boyhood. 
What holds young and old alike so well as 
a good story ! When not at work making 
lav/s, Lincoln usually had a crowd around 
him to whom he was telling some story. 

Lincoln Reelected a Second, a 
Third, and a Fourth Time 

When the time came, again Lincoln was 
a candidate for the State Legislature. 
He had a still better chance of winning in 
the election, because he was more widely 
known. But he had to take the same 
steps as before — to tell the people what his 
principles were, to make stump speeches, 
to shake hands with everybody, and to be 
polite to the ladies. 



The Man of the People 



65 



After the voting was over it was found 
that Sangamon County had elected nine 
members to the Legislature, all Whigs! 
Lincoln led all the others. It was a time 





I :Mfift 



The Capitol at Springfield 

of great excitement in the Legislature. 
Lincoln voted with the majority for im- 
proving the rivers and building canals. 

But most of Lincoln's attention was 
given to a measure for changing the 
capital from Vandalia to Springfield, in 
Lincoln's own county. The measure was 



66 Abraham Lincoln 

passed, and the people of Sangamon 
County believed in him more than ever. 

At this time the slavery question was 
being discussed in all parts of the United 
States. The Abolitionists were a small 
body of men who were bound to stir up 
the people over the slavery question. 
At that time the great majority of people 
hated the Abolitionists. In many parts 
of the North mobs tried to scare the 
Abolitionists, and in Illinois itself a mob 
had murdered Elijah P. Lovejoy while he 
was defending his newspaper. The Legis- 
lature of Illinois took up the question and 
bitterly denounced the Abolitionists. 

Abraham Lincoln, then only twenty- 
eight years old, with another member 
signed a protest against this action of the 
Legislature. These two men were not 
Abolitionists, for they thought the Aboli- 
tionists did more harm than good. But 
they declared that "slavery is founded on 
both injustice and bad policy." Just two 
men, among the whole body of the Legis- 
lature, were bold enough to stand out 



The Man of the People 6y 

from the rest and declare slavery wrong — 
a double wrong. For the sake of being 
in the right Lincoln did not fear public 
opinion. This protest against the resolu- 
tions of the IlHnois Legislature was signed 
more than a quarter of a century before 
slavery was abolished. 

Once more he ran for the Legislature. 
The man who ran against him was named 
Taylor. While making a speech before a 
large crowd, Taylor had said that Demo- 
crats were poor men, while Whigs were rich 
and lived in fine houses. 

When Lincoln's turn came, he said: 
"My opponent accuses the Whigs of rid- 
ing in fine carriages and wearing rufBed 
shirts, kid gloves, and gold watch chains. 
Well, I was once a poor boy and worked 
on a fiatboat for eight dollars a month 
and had only a pair of buckskin breeches. 
Now if you call that aristocracy, I plead to 
the charge." Lincoln knew that Taylor 
was trying to fool the people, so while 
speaking, with a sweep of his long arm he 
caught Taylor's vest, jerked it open, and 



68 Abraham Lincoln 

the people saw a ruffled shirt and a gold 
chain! They roared with laughter, and 
Taylor, red in the face, left the stand. 
Lincoln was elected. 

Lincoln hated shams and loved fair play. 
In Springfield he had his law office above 
a hall. One evening his friend Baker was 
making a Whig speech in this hall. Lin- 
coln was in his law office above. He 
lifted the trapdoor in order to hear Baker 
speak. Baker said something that made 
the Democrats in the crowd very angry. 
"Pull him down! Put him out!" they 
cried, and started for the platform. Just 
then they saw the legs, then the body, and 
finally the head of Abraham Lincoln 
dropping down from above on to the 
platform by the side of Baker. He 
raised a hand, but the men were angry 
and did not stop. They saw him seize a 
stone pitcher, and heard him say: "I 
will break this over the head of the first 
man who lays a hand on Baker. Hold on, 
gentlemen! This is a free country, a land 
of free speech. Mr. Baker has a right to 



The Man of the People 



69 



be neard, and I am here to protect him!" 
The crowd drew back, and Baker finished 
his speech. 

Lincoln's last campaign for the Legis- 
lature was very different from the others. 




A Whig campaign parade 



It was a national campaign — one for the 
election of a President for the United 
States. 

Martin Van Buren, of New York, was 
the candidate of the Democrats, and 
General Harrison, of Ohio, of the Whigs. 
Hundreds of orators went about the 
country speaking to great crowds of peo- 
ple, sometimes as many as fifty thousand, 
sometimes one hundred thousand. 



yo Abraham Lincoln 

The Whigs had the largest meetings. 
Great wagons drawn by many horses were 
filled with young women. In the parades 
were log cabins, such as General Harrison 
had lived in. Coon skins were stretched 
on the cabin doors. Sometimes a live 
coon would be seen sitting on the top of 
a cabin. There were barrels of cider, and 
big balls roUing on to victory. There were 
barbecues, where they roasted oxen, sheep, 
and pigs, to feed the hungry crowds. 

A monster meeting was held by the 
Whigs in Springfield. Twenty thousand 
people came to town that day. It took 
fourteen teams of horses to bring the people 
that came all the way from Chicago. 
They were three weeks on the road. 
On that day Springfield was filled with 
raccoons, log cabins, and barrels of cider. 
One cabin was on a wagon drawn by thirty 
yoke of oxen. By the side of this cabin 
a hickory tree was planted. In this tree 
raccoons were seen playing. A barrel of 
cider stood by the door. 

Lincoln was already a favorite speaker, 



The Man of the People 71 

although but thirty -one years old. He 
had a great hold on the people because 
he used plain, simple language, and always 
seemed to be frank and honest. He told 
stories, sometimes to keep the people in 
good humor, and sometimes to point 
a hard-hitting argument. He fully en- 
joyed this campaign of fun and frolic. 
The Whigs carried the election, and 
Lincoln went to the Legislature for the 
last time. 

He Decides to Become a Lawyer 

Long before, Lincoln had decided to 
become a lawyer. We have already seen 
how he had a^ taste of Blackstone's Com- 
mentaries. But Major John T. Stuart 
advised him to study law. Major Stuart 
lived in Springfield, and was himself a 
lawyer. He probably saw in Lincoln's 
keen mind and logical way of thinking the 
traits of a good lawyer. At any rate, at 
that time the law was the surest way to 
public favor in Illinois. 



y2 Abraham Lincoln 

The usual way to get a start was to study 
in the office of some lawyer who had 
already made a name for himself. But 
Lincoln started studying alone. He walked 
twenty miles to borrow law books from 
Major Stuart. It is said that he some- 
times read them on the road as he tramped 
back and forth. He saw how a knowledge 
of what the law books contained would be 
of great aid to him in the Legislature. 

One day after he had come back from 
the Legislature he decided to leave New 
Salem and move to Springfield. 

Springfield was a town of only fifteen 
hundred, but Lincoln had many warm 
friends there, for he was one of the men who 
had had most to do in makjng Springfield 
the capital of the state. When he reached 
Springfield, on a borrowed horse, he car- 
ried everything he owned in his saddlebags. 

He went to a storekeeper and asked 
how much a bedstead, bedding, and cer- 
tain other things would cost. It figured 
up seventeen dollars. Lincoln said that 
he did not have the money. But if the 




The Man of the People 73 

storekeeper would give him credit until 
Christmas, and his experiment of being a 
lawyer turned out well, he would pay him. 
If he failed he did not know 
that he should ever be able to 
pay him. 

The storekeeper's sympathy 
was aroused. He told Lincoln 
that "upstairs" was a room 
with a double bed, and that 
he was welcome to use the 
room and to share the bed with him. 
Lincoln carried his saddlebags upstairs. 
Soon he came down with a broad smile 
on his face, and said, "Well, Speed, I've 
moved." 

Lincoln began his career as a lawyer in 
the office of his friend Major Stuart. 
These early days at the law were hard 
days. It was not very long, however, 
before Lincoln was able to make his liv- 
ing at the law. But his creditors ! They 
were given everything he made above 
what Lincoln needed to live on. 

One day an agent of the Post Office 



74 Abraham Lincoln 

Department reached Springfield. He 
came to collect seventeen dollars which 
Lincoln owed the Government as post- 
master at New Salem. Lincoln walked 
across the room to a little trunk. He drew 
forth an old cotton rag containing the exact 
amount in silver money. He paid the agent. 
The men who saw this were amazed, for 
they knew how much he had often needed 
money. Why did he not use it in those 
days of pinching poverty? He simply said 
that he had made it a habit not to spend 
money belonging to others. 

Lincoln's First Love 

Not until Lincoln reached the age of 
twenty- five did he fall in love. While he 
was living at New Salem, Ann Rutledge 
captured his heart. She was the daughter of 
the tavern keeper, and had been to school 
at Jacksonville, a rare thing in that day. 
The people who knew her declare that she 
was a young woman of many virtues. 
She was winsome in her ways, with a grace 



The Man of the People 75 

and charm that caused the young men 
who visited her father's tavern suddenly 
to become quiet when Ann Rutledge 
came near. 

Unfortunately for Lincoln, she had given 
her heart to another. A young man had 
won her. He had come to New Salem 
from somewhere in the East, and now 
that he had made his way, he would go 
back to bring his parents to New Salem, 
and then claim his bride. 

After he had gone, his letters finally 
stopped coming, and no one knew what 
had become of him. Ann Rutledge was 
a heart-broken girl. For a time she could 
think of but little else. The silence of her 
lover hung over her like a great cloud. 

Before she had forgotten her sorrow 
Abraham Lincoln had fallen in love with 
her. But Lincoln was poor and had 
nothing to offer but a great heart full of 
human love. Would Ann Rutledge accept 
Lincoln ? 

It is a tradition at New Salem that 
Lincoln first told her of his love at a 



y6 Abraham Lincoln 

** quilting bee" to which they had gone. 
For a long time the very quilt over which 
her nervous fingers flew was kept by 
friends as proof of her great excitement, 
for the uneven stitches tell the story. 

Ann Rutledge did not give him an 
answer that evening. Might not her old 
lover come back? Once more a letter 
w^as sent, but weeks grew into months, and 
no answer ever came. 

She accepted Abraham Lincoln, and the 
two lovers were happy. But poverty 
stood between them and marriage. They 
had to put off the wedding. When Lin- 
coln should come back from the Legisla- 
ture, and after she had returned from 
another year at school in Jacksonville, 
they were to be married. 

The world seemed brighter to Lincoln. 
Friends seemed gladder to see him. 

But Ann Rutledge could not get rid 
of the shadow of her first lover. The 
thoughts of him still haunted her. She 
could not shake them off. Had she not 
pledged her word to remain true to him? 



<s 



,VV«°» ^4«^^ 




^^ fi^e(U^/AA ofu^u/i ^owAa-^ 
December \6tk, 1839 



•«- W. OIOCCLY, 


i. r. spccD, 


J. A. W'CtCKWAJiO, 


J. SHICLDS. 


R. ALIXN. 


C. D. tKMUXft, 


M. M. WASM« 


C. M. KCRRtNAW, 


r. w. T0I.O. 


M. e. «tfHlTCSIOC« 


e. A. ItOUObAM. 


M. CASTHAM. 


W. 5. rftCRTICC. 


J. ^ OIUI-EJt 


•l.'«l. C0WARO4, 


A. £.IKWfc*«, 




MAK»se^' 



Invitation to a party attended by Lincoln 



J 8 Abraham Lincoln 

The people of New Salem said she was 
breaking her heart over him. She seemed 
to be pining away. Finally she fell sick. 
Her sickness gre\\' itito a fever. 

Poor Lincoln! He had been shut away 
from her, but as she grew worse she cried 
for him. Her family let her have her wish. 
They spent an hour together. She sang 
for him. It was her last song. In a few 
days she passed away, and he seemed to 
be left alone in the world. 

Lincoln wandered in the woods and 
along the river banks and muttered 
strange words to himself. His friends 
became afraid for him, and one of them 
took him to his friendly cabin. There 
under the tender care of the wife in that 
cabin home, Lincoln came to be himself 
once more. He never forgot good Bowling 
Green and his wife Nancy. Neither did 
he soon forget the sweet prairie flower 
that drooped and died before he plucked 
it. Long, long years afterwards Lincoln 
said to a friend, "I have loved the name 
of Rutledge to this day." 



The Man of the People yg 

Love and Marriage 

After some time a cheery, good-looking 
young woman from Kentucky came to live 
in Springfield. Her name was Mary Todd. 
She became a center of admiration for a 
number of young men. One of them was 
bright, keen young Stephen A. Douglas. 
But none of them took hold of her feelings 
as did Abraham Lincoln. He certainly 
was not a "polished society gentleman," 
but he had a kindliness of manner and a 
rugged honesty that seemed to touch her. 

In the course of time she became 
engaged to Abraham Lincoln. But how 
opposite they were! Lincoln was so very 
tall, and she just the average height. 
He was slim, bony, and awkward, while 
she was well built, and a picture of grace 
and beauty. His mind was rather slow and 
his face even then a sad one, while she 
was indeed the gayest sort of a person, 
loving fun and frolic. 

After they had been engaged for a 
time, Lincoln asked himself whether he 



8o Abraham Lincoln 

really loved Mary Todd as well as she 
deserved. Could he really make her 
as happy as she now seemed to be? 
The more he brooded over this question 
the more firmly convinced he became that 
he did not deserve to marry Mary Todd. 

In a fit of despair he broke ofl his 
engagement and went to visit a good 
friend in Kentucky. There with the aid 
of warm friends he came back to himself, 
and in due time returned to Springfield. 

Still Lincoln was troubled, because he 
was not now certain that he had done 
the honorable thing in breaking his 
engagement. 

He was thinking of this problem when 
writing later to the good friend in Ken- 
tucky who had been so full of sympathy 
for him: "I must regain my confidence 
in my own ability to keep my resolves 
when they are made. In that ability 
I once prided myself as the only or chief 
gem of my character; that gem I lost — 
how and where you know too well. I 
have not yet regained it, and, until I 



The Man of the People 8i 

do, I cannot trust myself in any matter 
of much importance." 

In the fall of the year 1842 he had 
reached the point m. 

where he had W® 

faith in himself jZ^Mi 

once more, and M^^ 

he renewed the ifS^^n/^^V 
engagement with mWf/'^if/^ fWvk 
Mary Todd. The ¥" \ m] II m. 
two young peo- M^?4 wp \^ |%A<m, 
pie seemed to be | ^^ L i k\'^S 
in a great hurry, | §41/ ^ 1/ iS te^^V^ 
if the words of ^^^^^J^^X^!^^^^^ 
a bridesmaid can ""' ~ -"^ '^^ 

be taken: "One Mary Todd Lincoln 

morning, bright and early, my cousin came 
down in her excited, impetuous way, and 
said to my father: 'Uncle, you must go up 
and tell my sister that Mr. Lincoln and I 
are to be married this evening,' and to me : 
'Get on your bonnet, and go with me to 
get my gloves, shoes, etc., and then to Mr. 
Edwards's (her brother-in-law).' When we 
reached there, we found some excitement 



82 



Abraham Lincoln 



over a wedding being sprung upon them 
so suddenly. However, my father . . . 
poured oil upon the waters, and we 
thought everything was 'ship-shape,' 
when Mrs. Edwards laughingly said: 'How 
fortunately you have se- 
lected this evening, for 
the Episcopal Sewing So- 
ciety is to meet here, and 
my supper is all ordered 
. . . ' Mary declared she 
would not make a spec- 
tacle for gossiping ladies 
to gaze upon and talk 
Then my father was dis- 
tell Mr. Lincoln that the 




Worktable frotn 

Lincoln's home in 

Springfield 



about. . . 

patched to 

wedding would be deferred until the next 

evening." 

For good or , ill, they two were made 
one. And Mary told one of her friends 
she knew "that his heart was as big as 
his arm was long." Mrs. Lincoln had 
great faith in the man she had married, 
for she declared that one day he would 
be President of the United States. 



The Man of the People 8j 

Getting Read}^ for Congress 

Shortly after his marriage, Lincoln let 
his friends know that he wanted to go to 
Congress. But a young friend got ahead 
of him, and Lincoln was sent to the con- 
vention to help get the nomination for 
him. Lincoln did not sulk, but laughingly 
declared that he felt "a good deal like a 
fellow who is made a groomsman to a man 
that has cut him out and is marrying his 
own dear 'gal.' " 

He had two good reasons for working 
hard in the campaign — one was to elect 
his friend to Congress, and the other 
to make sure of the election of Henry 
Clay — his political idol. 

But Lincoln's fame in this campaign 
went beyond Illinois. The Whigs of 
Indiana invited him to come to the 
Hoosier State and make speeches. How 
pleased Lincoln must have been! To go 
back to Gentryville and shake hands 
with old friends! 

Not far from Gentryville, Lincoln made 



84 



Abraham Lincoln 



one of his speeches in a log school- 
house. Many old friends came to hear 
him. How glad they were to greet him 






fe 1 T" 1 

l|lMiiaiiii|i|iniilli"' ij{"i "i|l|||||l|||lllii 

''I 

The old swimming hole 

and to listen to his quaint but simple 
eloquence ! After speaking he took pleas- 
ure in looking up every spot he had 
known in his boyhood days. The old 
swimming hole, the town grocery to which 
he had walked to read the weekly paper 
from Louisville, the mill where the boys 
had had good times while waiting their 



The Man of the People 8j 

"turn," the blacksmith shop with its old 
forge, were all looked over again with 
fond memories. 

Lincoln went back to Illinois to learn 
that his friend had been elected, but that 
Henry Clay was once more defeated for 
the Presidency. 

Two years later, Lincoln received every 
vote for the nomination for Congress. 
The Democrats had put up that famous 
backwoods preacher, Peter Cartwright. 
He, like Lincoln, was born in Kentucky. 
Like Lincoln, he was a poor boy who had 
won w^hat little education he had by his 
own efforts. Cartwright knew everybody, 
and to many people it seemed a hard 
fight. 

But Lincoln went into the campaign to 
win, and win he did, with a larger vote 
than any man had yet received. In writ- 
ing to an old friend he said that he was 
very glad for the friends that had stood by 
him in the hard battle that was just over, 
but he added: '*It has not pleased me as 
much as I expected." 



86 Abraham Lincoln 



Lincoln in Congress 

When Lincoln went to Washington to 
attend the meetings of Congress he was 
the one lone Whig from Illinois. He did 
not know any Whigs, but soon got ac- 
quainted with some of them, for they were 
curious to see the man who could win in 
a state so strongly Democratic. He soon 
won his way to the hearts of the members 
by his ready wit and by the stories of 
which he seemed to have so many. 

It was a time of great excitement both 
in and out of Congress. The war with 
Mexico was going on. The Whigs took 
the stand that the war was wrong, but 
voted men and money for the army. 

The Democrats beheved the war was 
altogether right. Lincoln took the Whig 
view, and made several speeches, some 
of which were keen and witty. 

Although Lincoln was a great admirer 
of Henry Clay, he saw that the people, 
dazzled by the brilliant victories of 



The Man of the People 8y 

General Taylor in Mexico, really wanted 
to elect him President. 

Lincoln's fame as a popular speaker 
was spreading. He joined a Taylor cam- 
paign club called the "Young Indians," 
and received a pressing invitation to go 
to New England and aid in winning votes 
for Taylor. He spoke in many places, such 
as Worcester, Cambridge, and Boston. 

He spent the month of October speak- 
ing to the people of his own state for 
Taylor. 

In November Lincoln went back to 
Congress, resolved to do something in 
regard to slavery. In the District of Co- 
lumbia, in which the city of Washington 
is situated, was a slave market. "Much 
like a sort of negro livery stable," Lincoln 
said, "where droves of negroes were col- 
lected, temporarily kept, and finally taken 
to Southern markets, precisely like droves 
of horses." Many men of all parties were 
opposed to it. 

Lincoln introduced a bill into Congress 
which aimed to remove slavery from the 



88 Abraham Lincoln 

District, little by little, until slavery 
should b^ entirely gone. The bill was 
very fair to slaveholders, because it 
provided that before the slaves were 
taken away the slaveholder was to give 
his consent to it, and was to receive full 
pay for the loss of his slaves. Although 
Lincoln worked very hard for his bill, he 
was forced to see it defeated. 

The fourth of March was coming on, 
when General Taylor, or "Old Rough and 
Ready," as his soldier boys loved to call 
him, was to be made President. Lincoln 
was appointed a member of the commit- 
tee on the "Inauguration Ball," or dance. 
This was a great event with the people 
of fashion in Washington. Lincoln was 
present. 

Like most young men, Lincoln felt the 
attractions of Washington and thought he 
would hke to live there. When his time 
in Congress was out he tried to get an 
important ofhce. How thankful the Amer- 
ican people ought to be that Lincoln did 
not bury his talents in one of the public 



The Man of the People 8g 

offices at Washington, and how they 
should rejoice that he came back to 
Springfield and went into the same little 
law office he had left two years before! 

Lincoln Everybody's Friend 

Everybody was glad to give Lincoln a 
hearty welcome home again. He was 
once more among his old friends. Even 
the children knew him. He was glad to 
call them by their first names. For most 
of them he had done some kind deed 
which made them his friends forever. A 
Springfield woman tells this story of 
Lincoln's kindness to her. 

"I was going . . . for my first trip 
alone on the railroad cars. . . . The 
hackman . . . failed to call for my 
trunk. ... I was standing by the gate, 
my hat and gloves on, sobbing as if my 
heart would break, when Mr. Lincoln 
came by. 

" 'Why, what's the matter?' he asked, 
and I poured out all my story. ' How big's 



go 



Abraham Lincoln 



the trunk? There's still time, if it isn't 
too big.* And he pushed through the gate 
and up to the door. My mother and I 
took him up to my room, where my 











Lincoln's home in Springfield 

little old-fashioned trunk stood, locked 
and tied. 'Oh, ho!' he cried; 'wipe your 
eyes, and come on quick.' And before 
I knew what he was going to do he 
had shouldered the trunk, was down 
stairs, and striding out of the yard. 
Down the street he went, fast as his long 
lesrs could carry him. I trotted behind, 



The Man of the People gi 

drying my tears as I went. We reached 
the station in time. Mr. Lincoln put me 
on the train, kissed me good-by, and told 
me to have a good time. It was just like 
him." 

Lincoln wrote to his stepbrother, saying, 
**You already know I desire that neither 
father nor mother shall be in want of 
any comfort, either in health or sickness, 
while they live ; and I feel sure you have 
not failed to use my name, if necessary, 
to procure a doctor or anything else for 
father in his present sickness." 

And yet Lincoln did not always aid the 
people who .asked him. This same step- 
brother got some good advice instead of 
money. "Your request for eighty dollars 
I do not think it best to comply with 
now. At the various times when I have 
helped you a little, you have said to me, 
*We can get along very well now,' but in 
a very short time I find you in the same 
difficulty again. . . . You are now in need 
of some money; and what I propose is 
that you shall go to work 'tooth and nail' 



Q2 Abraham Lincoln 

for somebody who will give you mone}/ 
for it. . . . I now promise you that for 
every dollar you will, between this and 
the first of next May, get for your own 
labor, ... I will then give you one other 
dollar." 

Life on the Circuit 

Lincoln was a plain, simple man to the 
end of his life. He could have been rich 
had he wanted to be, but he loved simple 
ways. He could have become a great 
landholder, as some of the lawyers did. 
Or he could have gone to Chicago had 
he wanted to do so. A great lawyer there 
offered to make Lincoln his partner. 
But Lincoln preferred to stay in Spring- 
field among friends, and practice law in 
the country villages w^hich then formed 
the county seats. He never loved money 
for its own sake. 

He now studied with a grim resolution 
to master the law. The people of Spring- 
field noticed the difference in him. He 
gave more attention to his law books and 




^\^ 






4i 



^-^ 



"^c^' 



Riding the circuit 



94 Abraham Lincoln 

less to sitting around "cracking jokes." 
He often placed a candle on a chair near 
the head of his bed, and studied until 
two o'clock in the morning. 

He said to some of his friends that 
every year better educated lawyers were 
coming West. "They study their cases as 
we never do. . . . They will soon be in 
Illinois. ... I am going. . .to study law. 
I am as good as any of them, and when 
they get out to Illinois I will be ready for 
them." 

The famous "Eighth Judicial Circuit" 
was the one that Lincoln traveled. It 
was located in the central portion of the 
state. A judge held court at the towns 
in which the courthouses were located. 
These towns were called county seats. As 
the judge moved from county to county, 
holding court, the lawyers went along, 
sometimes on horseback, and sometimes 
in carriages. These crowds of lawyers 
were a happy lot, telling stories and crack- 
ing jokes as they rode along. 

The people of the county were always 




The Man of the People P5 

very much excited over the coming of "court 
week." They were a plain, simple people 
who greatly enjoyed the conflicts of oppos- 
ing lawyers. In great cases they crowded 
to hear the principal speeches, and drank 
in with hungry 
minds the flights 
of eloquence of 
the lawyers that 
rode the circuit. 

Lincoln was a ^ ^^^"^ ^''°'« Lincoln's home 

favorite among the country people. They 
liked his quaint and simple language, 
especially the many stories he told to 
illustrate his cases. But Lincoln was a 
favorite with the lawyers, too, when they 
gathered evenings to pass away the time. 
On such occasions as these Lincoln was at 
his best. 

Judge David Davis was at one time 
judge on this circuit. He liked Lincoln, 
and was always anxious when Lincoln did 
not appear after the day's work was done. 
"Where's Lincoln?" "Why don't Lincoln 
come?" he would ask the other lawyers. 



q6 Abraham Lincoln 

When the court was in session, and a 
case in which Lincoln had no interest was 
being tried, he would frequently whisper 
stories to the other lawyers. Judge Davis 
permitted the lawyers to whisper, but did 
not permit them to become noisy. 

"Mr. Lincoln had just come in," said one 
of the clerks of the court, "and leaning over 
my desk had told me a story so irresist- 
ibly funny that I broke out into a loud 
laugh. The judge called me to order in 
haste, saying, 'This miust be stopped! 
Mr. Lincoln, you are constantly disturbing 
this court with your stories!' Then turn- 
ing to me, 'You may fine yourself five 
dollars for your disturbance ! ' I apologized, 
but told the judge that the story was w^orth 
the money. In a few, minutes the judge 
called me to him. 'What was the story 
Lincoln told you?' he asked. I told him, 
and he laughed aloud in spite of himself. 
'Remit your fine,' he ordered." 

What a look into the past does this 
story give us! A great judge like Davis 
on the most friendly terms w4th the 



The Man of the People gy 

lawyers. And Lincoln ! The wit, the fun- 
provoking, jolly Lincoln! Judge Davis 
loved him, and would not miss a single 
story Lincoln told to the lawyers. 

In the course of time, Lincoln was called 
upon to speak- in many important cases. 
One trial called him to Cincinnati, where 
he met a lawyer named Edwin M. Stanton, 
who afterwards became Secretary of War 
under Lincoln. Little did Stanton dream 
that he would some day serve under this 
tall, awkward Illinois lawyer. 

In a great trial to which the Illinois 
Central Railroad was a party, Lincoln 
received his largest fee — five thousand 
dollars. But most of his fees were small. 
Many of the people were too poor to pay 
a lawyer very much. Lincoln was often 
scolded by the other lawyers for not 
charging more. 

Now and then a case came up in which 
Lincoln charged nothing. It was so in 
the trial of William Armstrong, the son 
of "Jack Armstrong, of New Salem days." 
Jack was dead, and his lonely widow was 



g8 Abraham Lincoln 

in court with her boy, who was charged 
with murdering a man. How the old times 
at New Salem came back to Lincoln ! 
As clerk in the store, his contest with Jack 
Armstrong; postmaster at New Salem, 
carrying the mail around in his hat; his 
appointment as surveyor ; the Black Hawk 
War ; the hours he spent in the Armstrong 
cabin — all came back to him. 

"Uncle Abe," says William Armstrong, 
telling the story in after days, "did his 
best talking when he told the jury what 
true friends my father and mother had 
been to him in the early days. . . . He told 
how he used to go out to 'Jack' Armstrong's 
and stay for days ; how kind mother was to 
him and how, many a time, he had rocked 
me to sleep in the old cradle." 

The feeling in that court room was hot 
against William Armstrong. The main 
witness had declared he saw Armstrong 
strike the fatal blow. "What time was 
it?" asked Lincoln. "About eleven o'clock 
in the evening," answered the witness. 
"Was it a bright night?" "Yes, the 



The Man of the People gg 

moon was nearly full." "What was its 
position in the sky?" "About the posi- 
tion of the sun at ten o'clock in the 
forenoon." Lincoln immediately gave 
the jury an almanac. "Gentlemen, either 
this witness is wrong or the almanac is 
wrong, for it says there was no moon that 
night." 

There was a sudden change of feeling in 
that court room. The jury brought in the 
verdict, "Not guilty," and Hannah Arm- 
strong, in her poverty and old age, thanked 
God for such a friend as Abraham Lincoln. 

He did not like to take cases he knew 
to be wrong. Once while trying a case he 
turned to a lawyer and said, "Swett, the 
man is guilty; you defend him, I can't." 

Once Lincoln was engaged to defend a 
man. Proof was given that he was really 
attempting a fraud. Lincoln left the court 
room and went to the hotel in deep dis- 
gust. The judge sent for him, but he 
refused to go. He said, "Tell the judge 
my hands are dirty ; I came over to wash 
them." 



100 Abraham Lincoln 

. These examples are enough to show that 
Lincoln was a very different lawyer from 
some of the men who practice at the bar 
of justice. When Lincoln went on the 
circuit he did not leave his conscience at 
home. 

He did not always take cases offered 
him, even if there was no question of 
where the right lay. He said to a man 
who wished him to be his lawyer: "Yes, 
there is no reasonable doubt but that I can 
gain your case for you. I can set a whole 
neighborhood at loggerheads; I can dis- 
tress a widowed mother and her six 
fatherless children, and thereby get for 
you six hundred dollars, which rightfully 
belongs, it appears to me, as much to 
them as it does to you. I shall not take 
your case, but I will give a little advice 
for nothing. ... I would advise you to 
try your hand at making six hundred 
dollars in some other way." 

Lincoln was not the greatest lawyer 
that ever lived, but he was one of the 
truest men that ever practiced law. 



The Man of the People loi 

Beginning to Debate Slavery 

For four years Lincoln had been busy 
studying and practicing law. Then the 
slavery question suddenly awakened him 
and called him to his life's work. 

Slavery was first brought to the colony 
of Virginia nearly three hundred years 
ago. Each of the thirteen colonies had 
slaves. But our Revolution, by which in- 
dependence was won, began a movement 
against slavery. Some of our best men 
North and South looked upon slavery as 
an evil. Congress passed a law called the 
"Ordinance of 1787," which forbade slav- 
ery in the territory northwest of the Ohio 
River. 

In 182 1 Missouri was admitted into the 
Union with the proviso that slavery should 
not exist north of its southern boundary 
— the famous line of 36° 30'. 

When Lincoln was in Congress the war 
with Mexico was going on. By that war 
the United States got all her territory 
in the Southwest. The North and the 



102 



Abraham Lincoln 



South quarreled as to whether slavery 
should or should not go into this territory. 
Henry Clay, now an old 
man, came back to the 
Senate and introduced 
the famous Compromise 
Bill of 1850. Both Whigs 
and Democrats, North 
and South, favored this 
compromise, and it be- 
came a law. 

In 1854 Senator Doug- 
las introduced a bill into 
photo by Brady Congrcss. TWs was the 
"Kansas-Nebraska Bill." 
This famous bill became a law, and provided 
that the people of Kansas and Nebraska 
should decide whether they would or would 
not have slavery in their territories. It 
went one step further; it repealed the 
Missouri Compromise of 1820, and left 
slavery north of 36° 30' to depend on the 
wish of the people. 

A storm of indignation swept the North. 
It awoke Lincoln, and called him to face 




From a 

Stephen A. Douglas 



The Man of the People 103 

a new duty. Stephen A. Douglas was the 
most unpopular man in the North. He 
was accused of trying to win votes in the 
South to aid him in becoming President. 
He declared that, on his way from New 
York to Chicago, he could read his news- 
paper at night by the light of his own 
burning efhgy. He had been a great 
favorite with the Northern Democracy, 
but the Kansas-Nebraska law had hurt 
his popularity. 

Only a few friends met him at the train. 
No booming cannon told of his coming; 
but flags in the city, on the river, and in 
the harbor were flying at half mast, and the 
church bells tolling as if the city were in 
mourning. Douglas was a brave man, and 
went immediately to face a large audience. 
He tried to explain his conduct in regard 
to the Kansas-Nebraska Bill. The crowd 
was sullen and silent. He was listened 
to for a time. Then somebody disputed 
one of his statements. At once the storm 
broke loose. He could not master that 
audience. He grew angry, but the people 



104 Abraham Lincoln 

would not hear him further. Douglas left. 

In a short time he went to Lincoln's 
home to speak to the farmers at the 
State Fair. Douglas explained the Kansas- 
Nebraska Bill — how it rested on the right 
of the people of the territories to settle 
the slavery question for themselves. He 
spoke for three hours. It was a masterful 
speech. Douglas was a great speaker. 
He had been trained in debating from 
his boyhood. He was now the greatest 
off-hand debater in America. He was 
ready at a moment's notice on any 
question. 

It was understood that on the next day 
Lincoln would reply to the speech made by 
Douglas. For six months /Lincoln had 
given up his story -telling, and had not been 
seen in the places where he had been in 
the habit of going. Now he was to be 
found in the libraries, looking up the sub- 
ject of slavery. 

When Lincoln mounted the stage to 
speak, on that October day of 1854, a great 
cheering crowd greeted him. He seemed 



The Man of the People 105 

unusually solemn. The greatness of the 
subject had taken hold of him. He spoke 
words of much soberness. Fewer jokes 
and more history fell from his lips. He 
made it clear to the audience what a 
great wrong slavery was, and that Doug- 
las, in opening Kansas and Nebraska to 
slavery, had done great harm, not only 
to the people of those territories but 
to the people of the whole nation. 

Senator Douglas sat in the crowd and 
listened to his argument. Sometimes 
Douglas, stung by the keenness of his 
reasoning, sprang to his feet, only to be 
driven to sit down again. How proud 
of Lincoln Ihe antislavery men were! 
He spoke for four hours. When he had 
finished, that great audience cheered and 
cheered again, so pleased were they with 
Lincoln's speech. Douglas felt called 
upon to answer, but he could not break 
the charm of Lincoln's logic. 

This masterly speech proved Lincoln to 
be the equal of Douglas. He at once be- 
came the leader of the antislavery people 



io6 Abraham Lincoln 

of Illinois, a position he did not give up 
as long as he lived. 

Lincoln followed Douglas to Peoria, 
where they debated the same question. 
Lincoln used the same plan he had used 
in Springfield. No fooling, no telling of 
quaint stories, but plain, simple logic. 

He said that slavery made the other 
nations of the world feel that we were "not 
true to the Declaration of Independence," 
but that we were ** really acting like hypo- 
crites." He was speaking against slavery 
and not against the Southern people. 
"They are just what we would be in their 
situation. If slavery did not exist among 
them, they would not introduce it. If it 
did now exist among us, we should not 
instantly give it up." 

Judge Douglas had declared with much 
irony in his words that the "white people 
of Nebraska are good enough to govern 
themselves, but they are not good enough 
to govern a few miserable negroes." This 
statement Lincoln answered by saying 
that "no man is good enough to govern 



The Man of the People 



loy 



another man without that other's consent. 
The master governs the slave without his 
consent. I object to it because it says 




Settlers hurrying into Kansas Territory 

there can be moral right in one man 
enslaving another." 

Douglas said that Lincoln had given 
him more trouble over the Kansas- 
Nebraska Bill than all the antislavery 
men in the United States Senate. Such 
words from so famous a debater were 
indeed a high compliment to Lincoln. 

Lincoln had many calls to different 
parts of the state to make speeches on 
the Kansas-Nebraska question. 



io8 Abraham Lincoln 

In Kansas troubles were coming thick 
and fast. Settlers from the free states 
and from the slave states were hurrying 
to that territory. Instead of settling the 
question of slavery by voting, they were 
setting fire to each other's homes and 
murdering one another. A body of United 
States soldiers had to be sent there to 
keep peace. 

Lincoln made a powerful speech before 
a meeting of antislavery men held at 
Bloomington. He stirred the feelings of 
that big meeting by declaring "Kansas 
shall be free." "The greatest speech ever 
made in Illinois," said the men who 
heard it. Again and again the audience 
sprang to their feet and cheered. 

All over the country the men opposed to 
slavery united in a great party named the 
Republican party. This party was de- 
termined there should be no more slave 
territory. Fremont was their candidate for 
President in 1856, and more than 1,300,000 
men voted for him. Lincoln took a big 
part in this campaign. While Fremont 



The Man of the People log 

was not elected, Lincoln declared that if 
all were united in heart and soul, the next 
time the Republicans would be successful. 
Little did he or his audience think that 
he was to be the man to unite them. 

In the year 1857 the Supreme Court of 
the United States handed down the famous 
Dred Scott Decision. By this decision 
a negro was a mere thing. He could be 
bought and sold like a horse, a cow, or a 
pig. The decision also stated that slav- 
ery, according to the Constitution, already 
existed in the territories of the United 
States, Congress and the Legislature to the 
contrary notwithstanding. 

The Supreme Court made it very awk- 
ward for Senator Douglas, because the 
Kansas-Nebraska law said that the people 
of a territory could settle the question of 
slavery for themselves. It aimed a blow 
at the Republican party also, for this party 
had declared that Kansas should be free. 

The Republicans were furious. They 
declared they would never stand by the 
decision, and demanded more resolutely 



no Abraham Lincoln 

than ever that Kansas be a free state. 
Lincoln was alarmed. He said, "Only one 
more decision is needed, and slavery will 
go into every state in the Union." He 
sounded the alarm which awoke the Re- 
publicans of Illinois. 

**A House Divided Against 
Itself" 

In June, 1858, the Republicans met in 
convention, in Springfield, and named 
Lincoln for United States Senator to take 
the place of Stephen A. Douglas. What 
an enthusiastic convention! Everywhere 
there were banners bearing mottoes. 
These showed that the Republicans were 
going in to win. The convention passed 
a resolution that "Abraham Lincoln is 
the first and only choice of the Republicans 
of Illinois for the United States Senate." 
On that evening Lincoln spoke to a big 
audience. He said: "A house divided 
against itself cannot stand. I believe this 
government cannot endure permanently 




ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

From a photograph taken in 1 866 from an amhrolype made in 

Macomb. Illinois, in 183S. and reprodured Ihrouiih the 

courtesy of the owner, Mr. W . J. Franklin 



The Man of the People iii 

half slave and half free. I do not expect 
the house to fall, but I do expect it will 
cease to be divided. It will become all 
one thing or all the other." 

Lincoln went on to explain that just one 
more decision was needed to make slavery 
lawful in the North as well as in the South. 
This was a great speech, because it told 
the people of Illinois and the people of the 
United States what Lincoln really thought 
might happen. It was a wonderful 
speech, because it raised a new question. 
Lincoln made it so clear every man could 
see that only one more decision was 
needed to put slavery into every state of 
the North. Every man went home that 
night to ask himself, "Which shall it be? 
What is the use of compromise when in 
the end we must decide either in favor 
of freedom in all the states or in favor of 
slavery in all the states?" 

Lincoln's closing words rang like a 
battle call: "Two years ago the Republi- 
cans of the nation mustered over thirteen 
hundred thousand strong. We did this 



112 Abraham Lincoln 

under the single impulse of resistance to 
a common danger. . . . We gathered from 
the four winds and formed and fought 
the battle through, under the constant 
hot fire of a disciplined, proud, and pam- 
pered enemy. Did we brave all then to 
falter now? If we stand firm we shall 
not fail." 

Lincoln showed the first part of his 
speech to some friends. They begged him 
not to put in his speech the idea of the 
country's becoming all slave or all free. 
He asked, "Is it not true? Is it not just?" 
"Oh, yes! but Douglas will beat you if 
you put that in." Lincoln declared that 
he "would rather be defeated with this 
expression in the speech . . . than be 
victorious without it." 

This great speech marked the end of 
one period of Lincoln's life and fortunes 
and the beginning of another. Men did 
not know it, but it marked the beginning 
of a new era in the history of slavery in 
this country. This speech is the speech 
of a statesman. 



The Man of the People iij 

The Lincoln-Douglas Debates 

Douglas was greatly excited when he 
read Lincoln's address. He saw that it 
was very dangerous to let Democrats read 
that speech. The idea that slavery was 
going to be national and perpetual would 
take hold of Democrats and make them 
into Republicans. He was most anxious 
to show the people the great danger 
lurking in the speech, and how it really 
encouraged a war between the North and 
the South. 

Douglas had won back his popularity in 
Chicago, and thousands cheered him to the 
echo as he made answer to the "House- 
Divided-against-Itself " speech. Lincoln 
had been invited to hear him and had a 
good seat. It was worth a long journey 
just to hear and see Douglas. He was 
below the medium height, but he was 
powerfully built — a stout neck and large 
head set on broad shoulders. 

His mental machinery worked quickly. 
He saw far through an enemy's argument. 



114 



Abraham Lincoln 



Sometimes Douglas "threw dust" in the 

eyes of his audience. No man equaled 

him in making "the 

worse appear the better 

reason." 

Douglas sometimes 
looked down on Lin- 
coln. In this speech he 
began by saying that 
Lincoln was "a kind- 
hearted man, a good- 
natured gentleman, a 
right good fellow, of 
great ability as a law- 
yer, and I have no 
doubt he has ability to 
become a United States 
Senator ! ' ' 

He declared Lincoln 
in his speech was invit- 
ing the North and the South to make war 
on each other, and that Lincoln was guilty 
of opposing the decision of the Supreme 
Court in the Dred Scott case. Douglas 
tore the speech to pieces, at least so he 




The statue of Lincoln 

by Augustus St. Gaudens 

in Lincoln Park, 

Chicago 



The Man of the People 115 

believed, and so the Democrats believed. 

On the next night Lincoln made answer. 
He began in a playful way, saying that 
''Senator Douglas is of world-wide renown. 
All the anxious politicians of his party, 
or who have been of his party for years 
past, have been looking upon him certainly, 
at no distant day, to be President of the 
United States. They have seen in his 
round, jolly, fruitful face, post-offices, land- 
offices, marshalships . . . foreign missions, 
bursting and sprouting out in wonderful 
exuberance ready to be laid hold of by 
their greedy hands. . . . On the contrary 
nobody has ever expected me to be Presi- 
dent. In my poor, lean, lank face nobody 
has ever seen that any cabbages were 
sprouting out." 

Lincoln said that Douglas had not 
quoted his speech fairly. He denied that 
he ever meant to urge a war between 
the North and the South, and declared 
he had said many times that no one had 
a right to meddle with slavery in the 
states where it already existed. He was 



ii6 Abraham Lincoln 

opposed to the Dred Scott Decision, and 
all who believed in the Declaration of 
Independence ought to be opposed to that 
decision. The Republicans were greatly 
pleased, and once in the middle of his 
speech he had to stop while they gave 
"three cheers for Lincoln." 

In a few days Douglas carried his cam- 
paigning right into Lincoln's own town of 
Springfield. He came with much pomp 
and show. Brass bands and cannon gave 
the signals that the great man was there. 
He attacked Lincoln's " House - Divided 
against - Itself " speech with more vigor 
than ever. 

Lincoln made a reply that stirred the 
people. They began to talk of a "joint 
debate," in which the debaters took turns, 
while the audience listened. Douglas 
should have challenged Lincoln, because 
he was a more famous man. He had 
been a United States Senator for a long 
time. He had traveled in Europe, and 
had been twice before the National Demo- 
cratic Convention for President. 



^?S~^^.'''V R i^r«« 




The Lincoln- Douglas debate at Galesburg 



ii8 Abraham Lincoln 

But Douglas did not wish to challenge 
Lincoln. He knew that for many years 
Illinois had been solidly Democratic, and 
he did not want to be the means of draw- 
ing Democrats to hear him speak and 
then have Lincoln make Republicans out 
of them. 

Finally Lincoln's friends told him that 
he must challenge Douglas. He did so, 
and Douglas said he would agree to seven 
joint debates on seven Saturdays in the 
towns of Ottawa, Freeport, Jonesboro, 
Charleston, Galesburg, Quincy, and i\lton. 

The battle opened in August. Almost 
everybody in Illinois tried to be at one 
of the meetings. People traveled long 
distances ; many came a day or two before, 
and filled the hotels and boarding houses. 
They camped in the streets and in the 
groves around the towns. 

On the day of the debate the people 
came in wagons all covered with ban- 
ners and carrying mottoes. They came 
by the hundreds and by the thousands. 
All over the country, as well as in Illinois, 



The Man of the People iig 

the people wanted to hear the debates. 
So the great newspapers in St. Louis, 
Chicago, and New York sent reporters 
to listen to the debates. The Democrats 
of the North were now beginning to waver 
a bit on the slavery question. 

Douglas came to the place of debate 
with great show and parade. His beau- 
tiful wife came with him and took deep 
interest in all that was said and done. 
Douglas traveled in a special car, and 
sometimes he had a special train. His 
train of cars was covered with "stream- 
ers" bearing mottoes. Lincoln, on the 
other hand, traveled as best he could. No 
special car was provided for him. Some- 
times he went on a freight train. Once 
when Lincoln was riding in the caboose of 
a freight train they had to stop on a side 
track to permit Douglas' fine train to 
sweep by. Lincoln laughingly said, "The 
gentleman in that car evidently smelt no 
royalty in our carriage." 

Some of the Lincoln mottoes were full 
of interest, while others were a bit funny. 



120 Abraham Lincoln 

At one debate thirty-two young girls rode 
in a fine wagon, each representing a state 
of the Union. But a thirty-third young 
lady, representing Kansas, rode behind 
the wagon. Her motto was "I Will Be 
Free." A newspaper reporter declared 
that she was too good-looking to be free 
very long! 

Some other mottoes were: 

"Illinois born under the Ordinance of 1787." 
'Free Territories and Free Men, 
Free Pulpits and Free Preachers, 
Free Press and a Free Pen, 
Free Schools and Free Teachers." 
"Westward the star of empire takes its way, 
The girls link on to Lincoln; their mothers were 
for Clay." 

"Abe the Giant- Killer." 
"Edgar County for the Tall Sucker." 

Douglas had a voice that could deepen 
into a roar. His eloquence was like the 
rush of a mighty storm, sweeping men from 
their feet before they had time to think. 
Douglas looked bigger than he was. He 
was well dressed. He was at home on the 
platform, where he walked about as one 






The Man of the People 121 

having great confidence in himself. He 
had been in many a battle like this, and 
was bound to come off victor. 

Lincoln was tall, slender, and awkward. 
His face was sad when he was not excited. 
His voice was light, but people a long 
distance away could hear him speak. His 
mental machinery was rather slow, but 
when his mind had worked out its links 
of logic, not even the eloquence of Douglas 
was able to break them. He was always 
earnest and sincere. His simple and unaf- 
fected words made men feel that he was 
seeking the truth. His gestures were as 
simple as his words, and when he was 
warmed up in debate he used his long 
bony finger to impress his audience. 

In the debate at Ottawa, as in all the 
joint debates, both sides claimed the vic- 
tory. The friends of Douglas were over- 
joyed at the splendid showing made by 
the "Little Giant." Lincoln's friends, 
not to be outdone, much against his will 
picked him up and bore him off on their 
shoulders. 



122 



Abraham Lincoln 




In the debate at Freeport Lincoln proved 
himself the equal, if not the superior, of 
Douglas. He proved it by answering 
seven questions Douglas had 
put to him. Then again he 
proved it by asking Douglas 
four questions. 

Lincoln knew that in i860 
Douglas, in order to be Presi- 
dent, would have to have 
the votes of the men in the 
South who were trying to 
make Kansas a slave state. 
He also knew that Douglas, in order to 
be Senator, would have to have the votes 
of the people of IlHnois. Lincoln was 
resolved that Douglas should not have 
both sets of votes. To keep Douglas 
from getting both sets of votes he put 
one of the hardest questions ever asked 
a man in joint debate. 

Here is the one fatal question of the four 
that he put to Douglas: "Can the people 
of a United States territory (Kansas, for 
instance) in any lawful way, against the 



Courtesy of Mr. Frank G. l.oga 

Lincoln's knife 
and case 



The Man of the People 12 j 

wish of any citizen of the United States, 
exclude slavery from its limits prior to 
the formation of a State Constitution?" 

Lincoln showed his questions to some 
friends. They saw only the danger to 
Lincoln. "Do not put that question," 
they said. **If you do, Douglas will be 
Senator." They thought only of Lin- 
coln's being Senator. But Lincoln replied, 
**I am after larger game." 

Just as Lincoln's friends had feared, 
Douglas sprang to the answer and declared 
that the people of a territory, by pass- 
ing laws against slavery, could drive it 
out. By this answer, Douglas held the 
people of Illinois. He won the Senator- 
ship, but lost the Presidency. As fast as 
the news of this answer spread over the 
South the people there declared they 
would never support Douglas for Presi- 
dent. They carried this resolution into 
effect in i860, when the Democratic party 
split in two rather than vote for Douglas. 

The debates went on. Lincoln repeated 
his questions in many places and Douglas 



124 Abraham Lincoln 

answered them. So the people of the 
whole country came to know just where 
each man stood on the slavery question. 

Douglas tried to fasten on Lincoln the 
charge of being an Abolitionist, and ac- 
cused him of teaching that the negro was 
his political and social equal. Lincoln 
replied that he did not believe that the 
negro was his political and social equal. 
"But," he said, "in the right to eat the 
bread, without the leave of anybody else, 
which his own hand earns, he is my equal, 
and the equal of Judge Douglas, and the 
equal of every living man." 

Douglas had said many times, "I do 
not care whether slavery is voted up or 
voted down." "That is logical," said 
Lincoln, "if you do not admit that slavery 
is wrong. If you admit that slavery is 
wrong you cannot say that you do not 
care whether a wrong is voted up or voted 
down. That is the issue that will con- 
tinue in this country when these poor 
tongues of Judge Douglas and myself 
shall be silent. It is the eternal struggle 



The Man of the People 125 

between these two principles, right and 
wrong, throughout the world." 

Long before the debates were ended 
Lincoln's friends caught fresh enthusiasm. 
They felt that his speeches were greater 
than those of Douglas. They saw clearly 
that, on moral grounds, Lincoln had the 
best of the debates. When discussing the 
right and wrong of questions Lincoln's 
tones rang out like the voice of a prophet 
of old. 

Lincoln before the People of the 
United States 

When Lincoln went home from the last 
debate he was a man of national reputa- 
tion. From every part of the country 
except the South came calls for him to 
speak to the people. From Kansas, from 
Minnesota, from Iowa, from Ohio, from 
New York, and from different places in 
New England came the call for Lincoln. 
The people were hungry to hear the man 
who had braved the "Little Giant" and 
had given him such a shaking up. 



126 Abraham Lincoln 

But Lincoln did not seem to understand 
that these demands were proofs that he was 
truly one of the great men of the nation. 
He said smilingly, "I have been a great 
man such a mighty little time that I am 
not used to it yet." He always put too 
small a value on himself. 

But his friends understood the meaning 
of it all. They were greatly pleased when 
the call came for a speech to be given in 
Cooper Union, New York. They rejoiced 
that he had been invited to the largest city 
in America, the home of Horace Greeley. 
Greeley was editor of the New York Tri- 
bune, the greatest antislavery newspaper 
printed in the whole United States. 

The day for the speech came. Cooper 
Union was jammed with the best people 
in the city of New York, all curious to 
hear Lincoln. The beloved poet, William 
Cullen Bryant, was president of the meet- 
ing. Horace Greeley was there, with many 
other equally famous persons. Lincoln 
gave them a truly great speech. In the 
next morning's Tribune, Greeley said: 



The Man of the People I2y 

"The vast assemblage frequently rang 
with cheers and shouts of applause. . . . 
No man ever before made such an impres- 
sion on his first appeal to a New York 
audience." 

After Lincoln's return to Illinois the 
people began to speak of him for President. 
A few friends had already spoken to him. 
In reply Lincoln said: "What's the use 
of talking of me for the Presidency whilst 
we have such men as Seward, Chase, and 
others? Everybody knows them; and no- 
body scarcely outside of Illinois knovv^s 
me." Another friend he advised not to 
give it further mention. " I do not think 
myself fit for the Presidency." But his 
friends in Illinois kept on working to have 
him nominated. 

When the state convention met in 
the town of Decatur in May, i860, the 
Lincoln feeling was running high. The 
governor was the chairman of the con- 
vention. The hall was crowded with 
Illinois delegates. Just at the right time, 
twt) men came into the hall carrying two 



128 



Abraham Lincoln 



rails and a banner. On the banner were 
the following words: "Abraham Lincoln, 
the rail candidate for President in i860. 







The Wigwam, Chicago 

Two rails from a lot of 3,000 made in 1830 
by Thos. Hanks and Abe Lincoln, whose 
father was the first pioneer of Macon 
County. ' ' The crowd went wild as the two 
men marched into the hall. The dele- 
gates caught up Lincoln, lifted him above 
their heads, and carried him to the 
platform amid the cheering, yelling crowd. 
When Lincoln reached the stand the 
cheering rose again. He had to make a 



The Man of the People I2Q 

speech. After the speech the convention 
passed a resolution declaring Lincoln to be 
the choice of the Republicans of Illinois 
for President. The delegates were told to 
''use all honorable means to secure his 
nomination." 

The Republicans held their national 
convention in Chicago. The city was duly 
proud of the fact, and just for the meeting 
had built a large wooden building called 
the Wigwam. The people came from near 
and far and filled the city with cheering 
crowds, with banners and with music. 
They did not all cheer for Lincoln, however. 

A great man from the state of New 
York, Senator Seward, was a favorite. 
Seward had been governor of New York 
and had been United States Senator for 
more than ten years. 

While everybody knew Seward, not 
every one knew Lincoln. But Chicago was 
a Lincoln town, and every street was hung 
with Lincoln banners. 

When the great convention met, the 
first count showed that Seward had the 



I JO Abraham Lincoln 

largest number of votes. When they 
voted the second time, it was seen that 
Lincoln was gaining, and when they were 
casting the vote for the third time, long 
before it came to an end they knew that 
Abraham Lincoln would be nominated. 
The Wigwam shook with cheers for Lin- 
coln, and the booming of cannon told the 
people of the city that Lincoln was nom- 
inated for President. 

Down in Springfield, Lincoln was stand- 
ing in the doorway of a newspaper office. 
A boy ran up with a telegram telling of his 
nomination. Lincoln read the telegram, 
and, turning to the friends crowded around 
him, said: "As there is a little woman 
down on Eighth Street who will be glad 
to hear the news, you must excuse me 
until I inform her." 

From Chicago came a number of men 
sent by the convention to tell Lincoln of 
his nomination. When the head man had 
spoken, and Lincoln had replied, they 
were invited to go into another room where 
Mrs. Lincoln would give them something 



IJ2 



Abraham Lincoln 



to drink. In those days "something to 
drink" meant whisky. What was the sur- 
prise of these men when cold water was 
given them. Lincoln sim- 
ply said that he would not 
break his custom now. 

So many people came to 
see him that the governor 
gave him a room in the 
State Capitol. Here he 
talked over the prospects 
of the campaign with 
leading Repubhcans and 
greeted all who came to 
see him with a hearty 
handshake. 

This was an odd cam- 
paign. Three candidates were in the field 
besides Lincoln. The Democratic party 
split. The Northern part nominated Doug- 
las for President, while the Southern part 
nominated Breckenridge. A third party, 
called the Constitutional Union party, had 
a candidate. This party wanted the peo- 
ple to stop quarrehng over slavery and all 




From the liyron Reed Collection 
in the Omaha Public Library 

A Lincoln campaign 
medal 



The Man of the People ijj 

support the Constitution and the Union. 
But the people would not stop, for they 
wanted the slavery question settled one 
way or the other. 

Lincoln did not "take the stump" as 
did Douglas, but remained in Springfield. 

The campaign grew hot, and men became 
more and more excited as the summer 
passed into fall . ' * Wide Awake' ' clubs were 
formed in many cities of the North. The 
men marched in torchlight processions, 
wearing glazed oilcloth caps and capes. 

Lincoln was called the "Rail-splitter 
Candidate," and fence rails were to be 
seen which were supposed to have been 
made by Lincoln. But "Honest old Abe" 
was the name the orators in the campaign 
loved to use. 

Lincoln came in for many hard words 
that men would be glad to forget to-day. 
Some said that "he was only a third-rate 
country lawyer" and could not be expected 
to do much, if elected. Others made sport 
of his jokes and declared that "he could 
not speak good grammar." 



IJ4 Abraham Lincoln 

In the North public opinion was rising 
in Lincoln's favor, in spite of such state- 
ments, and when the November days 
came, and the election was held, Lincoln 
received more votes than any other candi- 
date. There was a great outburst of 
rejoicing in the North. The Republican 
party had won a national victory for the 
first time in its history. 

But pretty soon news came up from 
the Southland that South Carolina and 
several other Southern states had left the 
Union. Before Lincoln took his seat as 
President these states had formed a 
Southern Confederacy and had elected 
Jefferson Davis president. 

After his election, Lincoln was busy 
getting ready his inaugural speech, select- 
ing his Cabinet, and watching the course 
of events, especially in Congress. Here 
the members from the South were already 
making farewell speeches. Some of these 
speeches bade defiance to the Union, while 
others were made in a spirit of regret 
and sorrow. 



The Man of the People 135 

Saying Good-by to Old Friends 

When the time drew near to go to 
Washington, Lincoln and his wife went to 
Chicago. Here Mrs. Lincoln bought the 
first silk dress she ever wore. While they 
were unpacking Lincoln said, with a twin- 
kle in his eye: "Well, wife, if nothing else 
comes out of this scrape, we are going to 
have some new clothes, are we not?" 

Although soon to be President, Lincoln 
had not forgotten "the simple woman 
who had brought sunshine into his deso- 
late boyhood, whose faithful hands had 
clothed him, and who had given him a 
chance to go to school." He first jour- 
neyed to the grave of his father, and then 
turned his steps to Charleston, Illinois, 
where his mother now made her home. 
The people were gathered in great crowds 
to cheer him to her humble house. The 
parting with his mother after the visit 
was very sad, for she feared that bad men 
would kill him. Tears ran down his 
cheeks as he bent to kiss her good-by. 



ij6 Abraham Lincoln 

Once more in Springfield, he was visited 
by many old friends. Even Hannah 
Armstrong came from Clary's Grove to 
bid Lincoln farewell. 

He went to the law office of Lincoln 
and Herndon. He threw himself upon 
the old office sofa. A far-away look was 
in his face. "Billy, how long have we 
been together?" he asked his partner. 

"Over sixteen years." 

Starting to go, he paused, and said 
of the old signboard at the foot of the 
stairway, "Let it hang there undisturbed. " 
He took a last look at the room in which 
he had spent so many happy hours. Then 
he and his partner walked slowly down 
the stairs. 

Herndon wrote this letter to a friend 
in New England: "Lincoln is a man of 
heart, ay, as gentle as a woman's and as ten- 
der — but he has a will as strong as iron. 
He, therefore, loves all mankind, hates 
slavery, and every form of despotism. 
On a question of justice, right, liberty, 
the government, the Constitution, and 



The Man of the People 



137 



the Union, you may stand aside ; he will 
rule them, and no man can rule him— - 
no set of men can do it. 
There is no fail here. 
This is Lincoln. You 
and I must keep 
people right ; God 
keep Lincoln right. 

The time to say 
good-by to the 
people of Spring- 
field had come. 
Lincoln was at 
the station, shak- 
ing hands with 
the hundreds that came for a last look 
at that tall, awkward, yet lovable man. 

With his hand on the bell rope the 
engineer waited a few moments while 
Lincoln, hat in hand, spoke his last words 
to the people of Springfield : *'^Iy friends, 
no one not in my situation can appreciate 
my feelings of sadness at this parting. 
To this place and the kindness of these 
people I owe everything. Here I have 




Lincoln's office bookcase, chair, 
and inkstand 



ij8 Abraham Lincoln 

lived a quarter of a century, and have 
passed from a young to an old man. 
Here my children have been born and 
one is buried. I now leave, not know- 
ing when or whether ever I may return, 
with a task before me greater than 
that which rested upon Washington. 
Without the assistance of that Divine 
Being who ever attended him, I cannot 
succeed. With that assistance, I cannot 
fail. Trusting in Him who can go with 
me, and remain with you, and be every- 
where for good, let us confidently hope 
that all will yet be well. To His care 
commending you, as I hope in your 
prayers you will commend me, I bid you 
an affectionate farewell." Lincoln was 
greatly moved by the show of the people's 
affection. They stood with uncovered 
heads, and with eyes full of tears, and 
watched the car pull out of sight. Lincoln 
remained on the platform of the car as 
long as he could see any one. He then 
went in. Thus closed another chapter in 
the book of his career. 



The Man of the People ijq 



On the Way to Washington 

The people saw the coming of the storm 
and were most anxious to look upon the 
man who was to guide the Ship of State 
through its troubled waters. At every 
station they greeted him, and hung on 
his words. Every word seemed to bear 
in its tone the fate of the nation. The 
plain people were mightily pleased with 
what they saw and heard. 

Lincoln was two weeks on the journey, 
for then trains traveled much more slowly 
than now. Besides, the party generally 
stayed over night to give the people an 
opportunity to shake hands with Lincoln 
and to hear him speak. 

The first stop for the night was in 
Indianapolis. Here the people seized Lin- 
coln's carriage and carried him more than 
a square. At Cincinnati a great multitude 
gave him a rousing reception. 

Once before he had spoken in Cincinnati. 
Then as now he said what he had to say 



140 Abraham Lincoln 

to the Kentuckians. "We mean to recog- 
nize and bear in mind always that you 
have as good hearts in your bosoms as 
other people, or as we claim to have." 
When he had finished speaking, the crowd 
rushed upon him, patted him on the back, 
and almost tore his arm off in order to 
show that they were with him. 

At Columbus, Ohio, Lincoln spoke to the 
Legislature. In Pittsburgh, where he talked 
on the protection of American industry, 
the people went wild, and it required the 
police and the militia to protect him from 
the noisy crowd. At Cleveland, Buffalo, 
Albany, and New York great cheering 
crowds greeted him. 

Lincoln did not reach Philadelphia 
until February 21. Here he heard there 
was a plot to kill him while he was going 
through Baltimore. 

On the morrow, Washington's birthday, 
Lincoln raised a new flag over Independ- 
ence Hall. A vast crowd witnessed the 
ceremony and listened to his address. It 
was an unprepared address and came 



The Man of the People 



I4t 




Raising the flag over Independence Hall 

direct from the heart: "I can say in 
return, sir, that all the political sentiments 
I entertain have been drawn . . . from the 
sentiments which originated in and were 



142 Abraham Lincoln 

given to the world from this hall. I have 
never had a feeling, politically, that did 
not spring from the sentiments embodied 
in the Declaration of Independence. . . . 
Now, my friends, can this country be saved 
on that basis? If it can, I will consider 
myself one of the happiest men in the 
world if I can help to save it. . . . But 
if this coimtry cannot be saved without 
giving up that principle, I was about to 
say I would rather be assassinated on this 
spot than siirrender it." 

After bidding the people of the Quaker 
City good-by, he went to his hotel and 
told his companions that he would go 
direct to Washington. He knew how 
people would look at this plan of going 
to the capital of the country "like a thief 
in the night," but Lincoln was persuaded 
it was best to take no risks, although he 
felt and we now know there was very 
little truth in the stories of assassination 
which had come to him. 

He went to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, 
where he spoke to the members of the 



The Man of the People 14^ 

Legislature. He left his good wife crying 
in the hotel, and slipped out by a back 
door. A carriage was waiting for him, 
and a train bore him back to Philadelphia. 

The night train for Washington had 
been halted to receive an "important 
package." When Lincoln was aboard the 
train the ''important package" was handed 
the conductor, and the train pulled out. 
Baltimore was passed in safety. Washing- 
ton was reached at six o'clock, and in 
a few minutes the whole country knew 
that Lincoln had arrived unharmed at 
the capital. 

Only Senator Seward and a friend f rorn 
Illinois met Lincoln at the station and 
went with him to Willard's Hotel. 

Lincoln Inaugurated President 

Washington did not expect Lincoln so 
soon. The news of his arrival spread like 
wildfire. Crowds gathered to see him. 
The members of the ' 'Peace Convention" 
came and were introduced. Some came 



144 Abraham Lincoln 

to talk about his Cabinet. Others came 
to tell him how to save the country, 
and still others out of curiosity. 

Lincoln had chosen his Cabinet in 
Springfield on the night after election. 
Statesmen and politicians gave their ad- 
vice for or against the men Lincoln had 
thought ought to be his chief advisers. 
But no reason given by any one led him 
to change his mind. 

Now more serious business than talking 
about the Cabinet demanded Lincoln's 
attention. Rumors were thick that the 
President was to be murdered before or 
on Inauguration Day. Washington con- 
tained thousands and thousands of people 
who did not wish Lincoln well. 

General Scott was commander of the 
army. He had gathered his soldiers and 
put them in different places to keep order 
or to be ready at a moment's notice to 
put down any effort to prevent Lincoln's 
inauguration. 

As the fourth of March drew near, 
hundreds of clerks in Washington, and 



146 Abraham Lincoln 

officers in the army, were resigning and 
going South to join the Confederacy. 
This threw things into confusion, and 
gave Lincoln a great deal of trouble. 

On Inauguration Day President Bu- 
chanan rode in the White House carriage 
to Willard's Hotel. Down Pennsylvania 
Avenue Lincoln and the President moved 
between double rows of cavalry. Little 
bands of riflemen had been placed on 
housetops. Soldiers marched in front of, 
and behind, the carriage. 

A little after twelve o'clock Lincoln 
made his way to the east side of the 
unfinished Capitol to read his inaugural 
address and to take the oath of office. A 
great multitude looked up into his face. 
A body of soldiers stood near the steps. 
Others looked with sharp eyes from their 
places in the windows of the Capitol, while 
a battery of flying artillery in the rear of 
the crowd stood ready at a moment's 
warning. No such care had ever before 
been taken when a President was to be 
inaugurated. 



The Man of the People 14J 

As Lincoln stepped forward to speak, 
he took off his new silk hat, but could find 
no place to put it. Senator Douglas 
quickly stepped forward and took the hat. 
"If I can't be President," he said, "I at 
least can hold his hat." 

Lincoln's address was both firm and 
friendly. He declared that he stood by the 
Constitution and the laws, and that the 
Government would begin war upon no 
one. He begged the South not to go out 
of the Union. He compared North and 
South with husband and wife who are 
divorced.' Husband and wife may go out 
from each other's presence, but not so 
North and South. They cannot separate. 
They must stay where they are. 'T am 
loath to close. We are not enemies, but 
friends. We must not be enemies. Though 
passion may have strained, it must not 
break our bonds of affection. The mystic 
chords of memory, stretching from every 
battle field and patriot grave to every 
living heart and hearthstone all over this 
broad land, will yet swell the chorus of 



148 Abraham Lincoln 

the Union when again touched, as surely 
they will be, by the better angels of our 
nature." 

Thus ended one of the most touching 
appeals ever made by any President. It 
was an appeal for peace and for the Union. 

Washington was full of the well-wishers 
of the Confederacy. That night Senator 
Douglas, with Mrs. Lincoln on his arm, 
swept down the great hall at the inaugural 
ball. Douglas took great pains to let it 
be known that he was standing by Lin- 
coln in this hour of great trial. 

The Storm Breaks 

The ceremonies over, Lincoln had time 
to think, providing he kept out of the way 
of the office seekers. Swarms of them 
dogged his footsteps wherever he turned. 

One day the news came that Major 
Anderson, who commanded the troops in 
Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, had 
food supplies for only a short time. The 
great men of the Cabinet seemed to be in 



The Man of the People 14Q 

favor of giving up Fort Sumter. General 
Scott was called; he, too, thought it best 
to surrender this fort to South Carolina 
and Fort Pickens to Florida. 

The President did not close his eyes in 
sleep that night. "What will be the effect 
on the North and on the South?" In the 
dark hours of the night it seemed to Lin- 
coln like giving up everything without 
striking a blow. By morning he had 
made up his mind. Food must be sent to 
Fort Sumter and soldiers to Fort Pickens. 

Before the ship with food reached Fort 
Sumter the Confederate cannon had 
opened fire. It was on a quiet morning 
in April, 1861, that a shell from the 
batteries in Charleston suddenly tore its 
way across the harbor and opened the 
greatest civil war in all history. 

News of the surrender of Fort Sumter 
reached the White House on Sunday 
morning. That same afternoon Douglas 
called upon Lincoln, and for two hours 
the two leaders talked over the situation. 
On Monday morning Lincoln's call for 



150 



Abraham Lincoln 



75,000 men went forth. Parallel with it, 
on the wings of the telegraph, went the 










The interior of Fort Sumter after the bombardment 

words of Senator Douglas, that he was 
standing by the President in his resolu- 
tion "to preserve the Union, maintain 
the Government, and defend the Federal 
capital." To the more than a million 
Democrats who went down in defeat in 
i860, this w^as a summons to do their 
duty. How nobly they answered the call 
of their leader ! The entire North, as one 
man, sprang to arms! 



The Man of the People 151 

"We will furnish the largest number 
you will receive," telegraphed the gover- 
nor of Ohio, Indiana's number 
was less than 5,000 ; but that state 
soon had 10,000 men ready to 
march at a moment's warning. 
"You may have 50,000 men," tele- 
graphed Chandler of Michigan. The 
North was rising. 

Nearly 100,000 were offered by 
the free states in spite of the fact 
that the call was for only 75,000. 

Soon the news spread that the 
Confederates were marching on 
Washington. Union troops were 
hurried to the city. But trains 
did not run fast enough. The 
people of Washington were fright- soTITm 
ened. Even Lincoln was s^reatly ''™" 

* / A war 

disturbed because Union troops did cam 

^ presented 

not come as soon as expected. ioUncoin 
"Why don't they come! Why don't they 
come ! " he was overheard to exclaim. But 
he did not dare let the people know he 
was even anxious. 



1^2 Abraham Lincoln 

The first troops to arrive came from 
Pennsylvania, four hundred sixty men. A 
regiment of troops from Massachusetts 
fought their way through the streets of 
Baltimore to reach Washington. How 
glad the President and the people of 
Washington were to see these soldiers as 
they marched up Pennsylvania Avenue, 
drums beating, flags flying, and bayonets 
gleaming ! The capital was safe. 

In July the battle of Bull Run took 
place across the Potomac from Washing- 
ton. This was the first battle of any size 
and was an overwhelming defeat for the 
Union troops. Back to Washington rushed 
the defeated troops in wild confusion. 
Congressmen and citizens who had gone 
out to see the battle came back and de- 
clared the Confederates would be in the 
city before morning. The troops, tired, 
hungry, defeated, came straggling in. 
Some fell in their tracks. Alany people 
began to leave the city. Lincoln was the 
calmest man in Washington. 

Congress gave Lincoln all the men and 




ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Frovi a statue by Adolph A. Wcintnan, in the Court-House 
Square at Hodgenville, Kentucky 



The Man of the People i^j 

money asked for. Lincoln appointed George 
B. McClellan commander, and that general 
made a fine army out of the men sent to 
Washington. 

Shutting Up the Ports of the 
South 

What if Lincoln should order the ports 
of the South closed ? Would it not starve 
the South by shutting in her cotton and 
shutting out clothing, guns, and other 
things which came from Europe? Lincoln 
decided to close the ports and ordered the 
little navy to keep Confederates in and 
foreigners out. 

Without cotton from the South the 
cotton mills of England will stop. Thou- 
sands of men will be out of work. What 
will England say? 

The governments of England and France 
agreed to say that the Confederates must 
be treated as men with the "rights of war." 

Lincoln had not expected this action, 
but could not help it. The Confederates 
were greatly pleased. 



1^4 Abraham Lincoln 

To encourage England and France the 
Confederacy sent over two men named 
Mason and Slidell. These men were sent 
to ask England and France to declare that 
the states of the Confederacy should be 
looked upon as an independent country. 

Just as these two men were escaping on 
the English steamer "Trent" they were 
captured by a United States war vessel 
commanded by Captain Wilkes. 

When the news reached the North the 
people were wild with joy, but Lincoln 
shook his head and said, "We fought 
Great Britain [1812] for insisting . . . 
on the right to do exactly what Captain 
Wilkes has done. If Great Britain shall 
. . . demand their [the prisoners] release, 
we must give them up." 

England was furious. She started sol- 
diers to Canada, and her government wrote 
an ugly letter which good Queen Victoria 
softened a great deal before permitting it 
to be sent. It was indeed great good 
fortune that England and the United 
States had two cool-headed rulers. 



The Man oj the People 155 

Mason and Slidell reached England, but 
tried in vain to secure favorable action for 
the Confederacy. They had hoped that 
England and France would at least do 
something to open their ports. 

The South, in the meantime, was depend- 
ing on the "Merrimac" to break the 
blockade. This vessel had been covered 
with a coat of iron in Norfolk Harbor. 
It had a great iron beak with which it 
could ram wooden vessels. Near Norfolk 
were the Union vessels. The "Merrimac" 
now moved out to the attack.' The 
shot from the Union vessels rolled off her 
iron back as hail rolls off a roof! She 
sank the wooden vessels. What was to 
hinder her from going up the Potomac 
to Washington? The President quickly 
ordered canal boats filled with stone to be 
sunk in a narrow place in the Potomac. 

Lincoln hoped the "Monitor," which 
was on her w^ay to Hampton Roads, 
would meet the ' ' Merrimac. ' ' This strange 
craft, looking "like a cheese box on a 
raft," reached Hampton Roads and took 



Ij6 Abraham Lincoln 

her place by the light of the burning 
"Congress," a vessel set on fire by the 
"Merrimac." 




.ry of the I i 

The struggle between the" Monitor" and the "Merrimac" 

The next morning the two ironclads 
met in battle. It was a battle of giants. 
"Why do you stop firing?" asked an 
ofhcer on the "Merrimac." The gunner 
replied, "I can do her as much damage by 
snapping my thumb at her every two 
minutes and a half." 

It was a drawn battle. But the North 
could make scores of ironclads, while the 
South could make but few. Wooden ves- 
sels now began to go out of use, and iron 
ones to take their place. 



The Man of the People ijy 

In the meantime Lincoln had ordered 
a forward march of McClellan's army. 
The army went to Yorktown and then 
turned up the Peninsula toward Rich- 
mond. There was hard fighting, and 
many days of it. General Lee, who was 
in command of the Confederates, hurled 
McClellan's forces back. Lincoln was 
greatly disappointed in McClellan's fail- 
ure to take Richmond. 

But there was no time to "cry over 
spilled milk," for Lee was plunging into 
Maryland. McClellan was sent after him. 
The two armies met at Antietam. A 
great battle was fought. Lee recrossed 
the Potomac, but McClellan did not follow 
up Lee's army as Lincoln had ordered. 

Trying to Find a Great General 

McClellan, who had taken the place of 
General Scott, was a great man in many 
ways, but he believed that he never had 
the army quite ready, or never had enough 
men. Lincoln had been very patient with 



ij8 Abraham Lincoln 

him, but when he failed to strike Lee a 
blow before the Confederates crossed the 
Potomac, Lincoln dismissed him. 

General Burnside was put in his place, 
much against his wish. After getting 
the Union army in shape he crossed the 
Rappahannock River and stonned the 
heights of Fredericksburg. But Lee, be- 
hind his breastworks, defeated the Union 
army. Burnside had failed. 

Lincoln named General Hooker for the 
head of the army. He fought the battle 
of Chancellors ville, but Lee again over- 
whelmed the Union forces and started with 
his veterans to invade the North. 

Lincoln was watching his movements. 
A great fear fell on the North. The 
President removed Hooker and put Gen- 
eral Meade in his place. A terrific battle 
lasting three days was fought at Gettys- 
burg, Pennsylvania. On the third day 
Pickett, a Confederate general, made his 
famous charge, but the Union troops held 
their position. 

After the battle Lincoln commanded 



The Man oj the People ijg 

Meade to strike Lee. But a second time 
Lee was permitted to cross the Potomac. 
It was now midsummer, 1863, and very 
few Union victories had been won in the 
eastern part of the United States. 

Early in the war Lincoln began watch- 
ing the movements of a man in the West. 
General Grant had been in business at 
Galena, Illinois. He was a West Point 
man. Grant captured Fort Henry on the 
Tennessee and moved against Fort Donel- 
son on the Cumberland, which he captured 
after hard fighting. Lincoln was greatly 
pleased with the dispatch he sent the 
commander of Fort Donelson: "No terms 
except unconditional and immediate sur- 
render can be accepted. I propose to mnve 
immediately upon your works." 

At Pittsburg Landing Grant fought a 
two days' battle and won. But the great 
loss of men and the shattered state of 
the army caused men to demand Grant's 
removal. "I can't spare him. He fights/' 
was Lincoln's reply. From Corinth to 
Vicksburg there was plenty of fighting. 



i6o Abraham Lincoln 

Then followed the terrible siege and the 
surrender of Vicksburg. Another outburst 
of joy ran through the North. There was a 
serenade at the White House that night. 
"I do most sincerely thank Almighty God 
for the occasion on which you have 
called," said Lincoln to the serenaders. 

Bragg was besieging Rosecrans in Chat- 
tanooga when General Grant was sent to 
take command. The siege was raised, and 
Bragg was driven away. Now Lincoln 
waited no longer. He had found the man 
he wanted. General Grant was called to 
Washington and made commander o-f all 
the Union armies (1864). 

Uprooting Slavery 

Long before this time Lincoln had begun 
to uproot slavery. Early in the war 
Congress passed a resolution that the 
purpose of the war was to restore the 
Union and not to injure slavery in any 
way. This resolution the President signed 
in good faith. But slavery would not be 



The Man of the People i6i 

let alone. As soon as the war was under 
way, the Confederates began to use ne- 
groes as cooks, as servants in the army, 
and to aid in making forts. Not only 
this, but thousands of negroes at home 
were raising crops to feed the Confederate 
armies. 

Lincoln soon saw that all these things 
permitted every white man of the South 
to go to the front with a gun in his 
hand. When, therefore, General Butler 
declared the negroes who came to his 
army ''contraband of war," Lincoln per- 
mitted it. By "contraband of war" was 
meant that these negroes were property 
being used in the war. 

Congress went still further and declared 
that all slaves vv^ho were engaged in fight- 
ing for the Confederacy should be free. 

Lincoln saw that slavery would be wiped 
out by the war. He wished to hasten it, 
and so began to urge the border states to 
begin the work of freeing their own slaves. 
He had Congress pass a resolution to pay 
the masters if they would set their slaves 



1 62 Abraham Lincoln 

free. Lincoln had a warm place in his 
heart for the noble battle the Union men 
in these states were carrying on. Yet not 
a single slave was set free by any of these 
states. 

In the summer of 1862, after this plan 
had failed, Lincoln was thinking about 
sending out a proclamation of emanci- 
pation. He called his Cabinet together to 
ask their advice as to the best time for 
sending forth such a proclamation. "Let 
us wait," said a member, ''until the North- 
ern arms have won a great victory, then 
send forth this proclamation." So it was 
put aside to wait for a victory. 

The victory at Antietam came in the 
fall. Lincoln thought the victory not such 
a one as he would like to have had, but 
concluded to send forth the great proc- 
lamation giving liberty to the slaves. 

This blow did not fall at once. Lincoln 
gave the Confederate states one hundred 
days in which to stop fighting and save 
slavery. They did not do so, and on 
January i, 1863, the proclamation became 



164 Abraham Lincoln 

a law. Many of the Confederates were very 
angry over this act of Lincoln's. President 
Jefferson Davis declared it was a wicked 
measure. But the time came when the 
Confederacy itself passed an act giving free- 
dom to slaves who fought for the South. 
Lincoln did not free the slaves in the 
way he wished. He believed in destroying 
slavery little by little ; but war forced him 
to free the slaves at once. 

Life in the White House 

By birth both Lincoln and his wife were 
Kentuckians. To that little family came 
much of the sorrow that belonged to those 
who had kinsfolk fighting on both sides. 

In the dreadful loss at Pittsburg Land- 
ing, among the Confederates was a brother 
who had been, in his younger days, the 
pride and joy of Mrs. Lincoln's heart. 
Now he lay cold in death on the field of 
battle as his sister opened a great Union 
ball to celebrate Grant's victory. 

The saddest event of the White House 



The Man of the People 



165 



was the death of Willie Lincoln. He was 

a bright, manly little fellow a little more 

than twelve years old, and 

the father's grief was indeed 

great. He shut the doors of 

the White House and in his 

sorrow found help in the 

words spoken by the Rev. 

Mr. Vinton, a friend of the 

family. Only little Tad was 

left to cheer him, for his 

eldest son, Robert, was away 

at Harvard. 

But not all the happen- 
ings at the White House 
were sad. The receptions took place reg- 
ularly, and the President shook hands 
with the people in the long line as they 
passed by. If there chanced to be a 
friend among them, Lincoln whispered to 
him to call "between hours." 

When the cares of office were put aside, 
Lincoln seemed himself again. He forgot 
his sorrows and gave full vent to the joy 
of story -telling. Often men who saw him 




Willie Lincoln 



i66 



Abraham Lincoln 



for the first time drew unjust conclusions 
concerning his character. They did not 
know of the long hours 
given to business, nor of 
his mighty sorrow over the 
dead and wounded after a 
great battle. 

But here the quiet of 
his own rooms he was the 
Illinois lawyer again, rid- 
ing the old circuit. Here 
he told stories and laughed 
with his friends to his 
heart's content. 

Tad Lincoln, . , -,1 1 1 • 

in the uniform of a A great man blamed him 

lieutenant of the _ ^ . 1 • 1 

United States Army OUC day lOr bClUg SO llght- 

hearted and so free from care while all 
around him were cast down. Suddenly 
Lincoln became sad and said, "I should 
die were it not for these hours of good 
cheer." 

Lincoln was not a man who believed 
in ceremony, but he could use it when 
there was need. Senator Charles Sumner 
loved formality, and the President knew it. 




The Man of the People i6y 

So when Sumner called, Lincoln always 
received him with the greatest dignity. 
When the Senator had departed, Lincoln 
"put on his easy manners," and said: 
"When among the Romans we must do 
as Romans do." 

One day he was made glad by the coming 
of an old friend from Illinois. This friend 
kept speaking to him as "Mr. President." 
"Now call me Lincoln, and I'll promise 
not to tell," said the President, jokingly. 

The American people never have had, 
and perhaps never will have, a more 
democratic President. He loved all men, 
especially ttie plain people. He greatly 
enjoyed the days on which he kept open 
house. He liked to take the people by 
the hand and look into their faces. He 
called such occasions "public opinion 
baths." When one of these "open house" 
days was over he could truly say that 
he knew more about public opinion than 
any man in Congress. "I don't want to 
know what Washington society thinks," 
he would say at times. 



1 68 Abraham Lincoln 

Lincoln's Love for the Soldier 

"I make the brigadiers, but the Almighty 
made the common soldier," said Lincoln. 
He seemed a comrade. He took off his 
hat when he met the soldier, but a simple 
touching of the hat was enough for the 
officer. It was reported to Lincoln that 
a brigadier and twelve mules had been 
captured b}^ the Confederates near Wash- 
ington. "How unfortunate! I can fill 
that brigadier's place in five minutes, 
but mules cost us two hundred dollars 
apiece." 

One of Lincoln's duties was to visit 
the sick and wounded in the hospitals 
near by. He went down the long rows 
of cots, laying his great hands upon the 
fevered brows of the men and speaking 
words of hope and cheer. 

A touching story is told which shows 
Lincoln's generous soul. A boy of nine- 
teen, a soldier, was ordered to escort 
Lincoln through the hospital at City 
Point, Virginia. "I could not but note 



The Man oj the People i6g 

his gentleness, his friendly greetings to the 
sick and wounded." Finally they came to 
three wards of sick and wounded South- 
ern soldiers. The young man said to Lin- 
coln: *'Mr. President, you won't want to 
go in there ; they are only rebels . " "I will 
never forget," said the young soldier, "how 
he stopped and gently laid his large hand 
upon my shoulder and quietly answered, 
'You mean Confederates/ And I have 
meant Confederates ever since. 

"I could not see but that he was just 
as kind, his hand- shakings just as hearty, 
his interest just as real for the welfare of 
the men, as when he was among our own 
soldiers." 

When Stonewall Jackson was slain at the 
battle of Chancellorsville a Washington 
paper published an article giving high 
praise to that noble defender of the Con- 
federate cause. Lincoln wrote a personal 
letter to the editor, praising him for the 
stand he had taken. 

As he was going to a hospital one day the 
driver came near running over a young 



I JO 



Abraham Lincoln 



blind man. Lincoln got out and saw that 
both eyes had been shot out. He took him 
by the hand, asked for his name, 
the time of his service, and where, 
he was wounded. He then told 
the young man that Abraham 
Lincoln was speaking. The sol- 
dier's face lighted with joy. He 
thanked the President for his 
kindness. The next day a commis- 
sion as first lieutenant was put into 
the soldier's hands. It carried with 
it three -fourths pay for life. 

One day, for good reasons it 
seemed, Stanton refused a soldier's 
request. Early on the following 
morning Lincoln hastened to the 
man's home and asked his for- 
giveness. He took the soldier in 



Courtesy of 
Mr. Frank 
(i. Logan 



Lincoln's 
favorite 
cane. It 
was made ^ . . i i i i i • 

from a rib his camage and helped mm to 
"Merrimacr get what hc wantcd. Secretary 

and was ° -^ 

Tincfinby Stauton apologlzcd for having re- 

""r^gTmLT^ fused the soldier's request. "No, 

no! You did right," said Lincoln. "If we 

had such a soft-headed old fool as I am 



I 



The Man of the People lyi 

in your place, there would be no rules 
that army or country could depend upon." 

One time he said to General Butler: 
"I should like to ride along the lines and 
see the boys." So along the lines of sol- 
diers he went until within three hundred 
yards of the Confederate pickets. "You 
are a fair rifle shot. They may open fire 
on you," said Butler. "The commander 
in chief must show no cowardice in the 
presence of his soldiers, whatever he may 
feel," replied Lincoln. 

Every soldier who carried a musket was 
a son of Lincoln's. All soldiers were his 
children, and hardly more than children 
were the defenders of the Union. Of the 
two and a half million that enlisted for 
the war, more than two million were boys 
under twenty-one. 

No soldier in trouble needed a great 
man to see Lincoln for him. His own 
story was all the proof Lincoln needed. 
"If he has no friends," said the President, 
"I'll be his friend." 

The story is often told of William Scott, 



1^2 Abraham Lincoln 

a soldier boy who was condemned to be 
shot for sleeping at his post. The boy 
was born among the hills of Vermont. 
When the war came he was among the 
first to enlist. As the story goes, the army, 
hard pressed, had marched forty-eight 
hours without sleep. A young friend of 
William Scott's was too sick to stand 
guard, and Scott volunteered to take his 
place. But sleep overtook him while 
standing guard. Now he must die for it. 

To die in battle would be glorious, but 
to die the death of a coward at the hands 
of his comrades was more than a brave 
heart could endure. 

President Lincoln heard of the case and 
went to the tent where William Scott was 
kept under guard. He talked to him of 
his old home, of his schoolmates, of his 
parents, and particularly of his mother. 
The boy showed him her picture, which 
he took from his pocketbook. The lad 
could not speak, so deep was his feeling. 
Lincoln was touched by the boy's simple 
story. 



The Man of the People 



173 



"You are not going to be shot to-mor- 
row," said the President. "I am going 




''The boy showed him her piclure" 

to send you back to your regiment. 
Now, what do you intend to pay for all of 
this?" The poor boy could not speak at 
first, he was so overcome. Pretty soon 
he said that he did not know. His ])arents 



7/4 Abraham Lincoln 

were poor, but he was sure they would do 
all they could. There was a small sum 
in the savings bank and the parents could 
mortgage the old farm. There was the 
bounty and his pay. Perhaps, too, his 
comrades would raise some. Would it all 
be enough ? 

But Lincoln shook his head and said: 
"My bill is a great deal more than that. 
It is a very large one. Your friends, your 
family, your farm cannot pay it. There 
is only one man in the world who can pay 
it, and his name is William Scott. If from 
this day he does his duty as a soldier, then 
the debt will be paid." His hand rested 
kindly on the boy's head. He looked full 
into his face while the boy pledged his life 
to the Union. 

How soon William Scott paid the debt ! 
In that fatal Peninsular Campaign he and 
his young comrades were the first to 
charge in the face of blazing rifle pits. 
When the retreat was sounded, Scott was 
among those that came not. He had 
paid the debt in full. 



The Man of the People ij^ 

Elected Again 

When the war began, Lincoln had the 
support of the people in the North. In 
the death of Douglas he suffered a great 
loss. Very Hkely Douglas would have held 
all Northern Democrats faithful to the 
Union. As it was, the great majority 
remained steadfast. Freeing the negroes 
was another thing that tended to drive 
men to vote against Lincoln. They said 
it is now not a war for the Union but a 
struggle to free the slaves. How strange 
it was that in the North so many people 
were opposed to setting the slaves free. 
They showed their opposition when it 
came to electing Congressmen in the fall 
of 1862. Many of the great states that 
had given Lincoln a big majority in i860 
now turned and voted for Democratic 
Congressmen. 

Some of his own party also gave him 
trouble. They were the men who stood 
for strong measures. They blamed Lin- 
coln because he did not turn General 



iy6 Abraham Lincoln 

McClellan out long before he did. They 
early called for freeing the negroes and 
thought Lincoln was too slow. These men 
hit upon General Fremont as the man to 
be President in Lincoln's stead. Fremont 
had been the first candidate of the Re- 
publican party for President. Now they 
wrote and talked a great deal about him 
for the Presidency, but when it came to 
the test only a few hundred met and nomi- 
nated Fremont. Finally he withdrew. 

Lincoln was really the candidate of the 
plain people. The politicians had tried 
to get Chase, his great financial secretary, 
to run against him for the nomination in 
1864, as he had done in i860. Chase was 
willing, but the people were not. 

The spring and summer were gloomy 
times. The Republicans changed their 
name to the National Union party to hold 
the votes of the men who would not vote 
for Republicans. The great Union party 
met at Baltimore and named Abraham 
Lincoln for President and Andrew Johnson 
for Vice-president. The convention was 



The Man of the People 



177 



bubbling over with Lincoln enthusiasm. 
It declared in favor of pushing the war 
for the freedom of the slaves, 
and denounced all who were not 
in favor of saving the Union. 

But the awful loss of life in 
the Wilderness Campaign soon 
checked the spirits of the Union 
party. The President himself 
was about to give up hope of 
reelection. 

Those Democrats in favor of 
ending the war were bold and 
aggressive. At their conven- 
tion in Chicago they declared 
the war a failure, and made an 
out and out demand for peace. 
McClellan was nominated to 
run aeainst Lincoln. But hard- .. , 

<-" IjS Courtesy of The 

ly had the Democrats reached rhelZoiitTi^ 
home before a number of bril- tl^'l^^f^'Yot 
liant victories proved the war ihis tower\'as\nIt 
was not a lailure, and that peace hai/ in Engush 

, ^ . ^ ^ sixpences and half 

was bound to come with the in American dimes 

Confederate armies broken and shattered. 
12 




lyS Abraham Lincoln 

Lincoln was the same quiet, sad, fun- 
loving story-teller. A general made a 
speech for McClellan for President, and 
some one ordered him driven out of the 
army. But Lincoln put a stop to this: 
"Supporting a general for the Presidency," 
he said, "is no violation of army regula- 
tions, and as a question of taste in choos- 
ing between him and me — well, I'm the 
longest, but he's better looking." 

After the convention at Baltimore he 
said to a delegation from the National 
Union League which came to congratulate 
him: "I do not allow myself to suppose 
that either the convention or the League 
has concluded to decide that I am either 
the greatest or best man in America, but 
rather . . . that it is not best to swap 
horses while crossing the river, and have 
further concluded that I am not so poor 
a horse that they might not make a botch 
of it trying to swap." All over the North 
this saying was caught up and placed on 
banners and transparencies — "Don't swap 
horses while crossing the stream." 



The Man oj the People lyg 

When the campaign was over and his 
election was certain, Lincoln remembered 
the anxiety of Mrs. Lincoln. "Send the 
word right over to Madam; she will be 
more interested than I am." 

The Last Days of the War 

When General Grant left the White 
House to take charge of the armies of 
the Union, Lincoln was satisfied that a 
man had come whom he could trust fully. 
Grant gave Lincoln his plans. They were 
never changed. 

When Grant took the Army of the 
Potomac and plunged into the Wilderness, 
he ordered General Sherman to move 
against Atlanta. 

While Grant was hammering away at 
Lee's army, Admiral Farragut entered 
Mobile Bay and broke the naval power 
of the Confederates. 

The days of the Confederacy were num- 
ber^^d. The order had gone forth to take 
the government away from Richmond. 



l8o Abraham Lincoln 

President Davis was gone, and the army 
of Lee was going southward to join the 
army of General Johnston. 

One morning in April, 1865, Sheridan's 
cavalry stood across Lee's line of retreat. 
Lee could go no farther. He surrendered. 
A 'few days later Johnston surrendered to 
Sherman. The war was over. 

Before the surrender Lincoln visited 
Grant's army at City Point. Here he had 
a restful stay of ten days right in the 
midst of the common soldiers he loved so 
well. Cheer upon cheer greeted him 
wherever he went. Here he was when the 
news came that Richmond had fallen. 

"I v^^ant to see Richmond," Lincoln 
said. He went by the river in a twelve- 
oared barge to the capital of the Con- 
federacy. Little Tad was with him. He 
took his son by the hand and, guarded by 
ten soldiers, walked through the crowds 
of shouting negroes to the center of the 
city. When he came to President Davis' 
residence, he went in. Some one said that 
Davis ought to be hanged. "Judge not, 



I 



i82 Abraham Lincoln 

that ye be not judged," was his answer. 

He went to the home of the famous 
General Pickett, who led the great Con- 
federate charge at Gettysburg. "Is this 
where General Pickett lives?" he asked 
of Mrs. Pickett, who appeared, holding a 
baby in her arms. He told her who he 
was, and said, '*I come not as President, 
but as George Pickett's friend, to ask 
about him and his family." He had known 
Pickett before the war, and in fact obtained 
for him a cadetship at West Point. What 
proof of the generous and kindly nature 
of the man ! 

Lincoln was at Grant's headquarters on 
the morning of the day Lee surrendered. 
When talking over the terms of peace, he 
said, "Get them to plowing once and 
gathering in their own little crops, eating 
pop corn at their own firesides, and you 
can't get them to shoulder a musket again 
for half a century. ' ' 

It was a noble man who felt this way 
about the men who had fought for four 
years to destroy the Union. 



The Man of the People i8j 

The Death of Abraham Lincoln 

From the beginning of the war Lincoln 
had received letters containing threats to 
kill him. 

He was good, and he thought all other 
people the same. He never armed him- 
self, and usually went about the White 
House and the city unguarded. 

The President was always glad when 
an opportunity came to rest. He seldom 
sought it at the theater, but on this April 
night "Our American Cousin" was to be 
played. 

The President and Mrs. Lincoln arrived 
a bit late. The actors stopped, and the 
band struck up ''Hail to the Chief." The 
whole audience rose and cheered, and the 
President bowed in return. 

The play was begun again, and was 
nearly finished when the report of a 
pistol rang out. A man was seen to jump 
from the President's box to the stage. 
He caught his foot in the folds of a flag 
and fell on the stage, but rose again. 



184 Abraham Lincoln 

Swinging a knife in the air, he cried, ''Sic 
semper tyr minis,'' then quickly fled. Some 
one shouted, "He has shot the President! 
Stop him! Stop him!" 

The President's head dropped forward, 
and his eyes closed. He was taken to 
a house across the street and laid upon a 
bed. A doctor was called, but the wound 
was mortal. The next morning he died, 
a little after seven o'clock. 

The assassin was John Wilkes Booth, a 
half-crazed actor. He was hunted down 
and shot in a barn. Several members of 
Lincoln's Cabinet also were attacked. It 
seemed a plan to destroy the Government 
at one blow. 

A great sorrow fell upon the land. 
Even in the South there were many 
who mourned Lincoln's death. Within an 
hour or so after he died Washington was 
shrouded with the signs of mourning. 
Mourning spread throughout the land. 
Strong men broke down and cried as if 
their hearts would break. 

April 19 was given out as the day on 



The Man of the People 



185 



which the general funeral ceremonies 
were to be held — the day on which the 








r*^v-. 



7^^^^ I 

W'^ 



The Lincoln monument at Springfield 

minutemen fell at Lexington. All over 
the nation the people gathered to mourn. 
Along the route from Washington to 
Springfield every town and city begged 
that the funeral train might halt and the 
people be given an opportunity to show 
their affection for Lincoln. 



i86 Abraham Lincoln 

Sucn scenes no funeral train had ever 
met as it passed slowly through the land. 
When finally Springfield was reached, 
Lincoln was laid to rest in a lovely spot in 
Oak Ridge. Here came the great and the 
good to honor him who was greatest and 
best, but who, tested by his own measure, 
would have counted himself least among 
the sons of men. 

Bishop Simpson, the long-time friend, 
delivered a tender and beautiful oration. 
But chief among those that came to the 
funeral were the old friends who had lived 
in New Salem and Clary's Grove. They 
came to see their neighbor and friend, 
simple, honest, true Abraham Lincoln. 



i 



A Chronology of the Life of 
Abraham Lincoln 

AGE DATE EVENT 

1809 February 12, Lincoln born near Hodgenville, 
Kentucky. 

7 1 816 Removes to Indiana near Gentry ville. 

8 1 81 7 Helps his father build a cabin. Mother 

dies. 
10 1 819 Thomas Lincoln brings home new mother, 
Sally Bush Johnston. 

Lincoln goes to school (all together one 
year) works for the neighbors, and reads 
incessantly. 

First trip to New Orleans. 

Removes to Illinois. 

Goes to New Salem as clerk in a store. 

Second trip to New Orleans; witnesses a 
slave auction. 

Candidate for the Legislature. 

Captain in Black Hawk War. 

Defeated for Legislature. 

With Berry, buys a store. 

Appointed postmaster by President Jackson. 

Appointed county surveyor by the Demo- 
crats. 

Studies law. 



187 



II 


1820 


to 


to 


18 


1827 


19 


1828 


21 


1830 


22 


I83I 


22 


I83I 


23 


1832 


23 


1832 


23 


1832 


23 


1832 


24 


1833 


24 


1833 


25 


1834 


to 


to 


27 


1836 



AGE 


DATE 


28 


1837 


27 


1836 


to 


to 


31 


1840 


30 


1 839 


31 


1840 


33 


1842 


33 


1842 


35 


1844 



188 Abraham Lincoln 



EVENT 

Removes to Springfield and begins to 

practice law in earnest. 
Reelected to the Legislature. 



First meets Douglas in debate. 

Stumps the state for Harrison. 

JMarries JMary Todd. 

Forms law partnership with Judge Logan. 

Stumps Illinois and Indiana for his favorite, 
Henry Clay. 
35 1844 Supports Baker for Congress, although he 
wanted the nomination himself. 

Elected to Congress. 

Advocates Taylor's election. 

Introduces bill into Congress for Compen- 
sated Abolition of Slaves in the District 
of Columbia. 

Practices law. 



Attacks Douglas's defense of Kansas- 
Nebraska Bill. 

47 1 856 Stumps state for first Republican candidate 

for the Presidency. 

48 1857 Attacks Dred Scott decision. 

49 1858 Nominated for United States Senator by 

Republican State Convention. 
49 1858 Makes a great speech, "A House Divided 

against Itself." 
49 1858 Challenges Douglas to joint debate; the 

seven joint debates. 



37 


1846 


39 


1848 


40 


1849 


41 


1850 


to 


to 


45 


1854 


45 


1854 



AGE 


DATE 


50 


1859 


51 


i860 


51 


i860 


51 


i860 


52 


I86I 


52 


I86I 


52 


I86I 



The Man of the People 189 

EVENT 

Receives many invitations to speak. 

Great speech in Cooper Institute. 

Nominated for President at Chicago. 

Elected President. 

Journey to Washington. 

Inauguration. 

Fort Sumter surrenders; Lincohi calls for 

troops to defend the Union; patriotic 

conduct of Douglas. 
52 1 861 Lincoln appoints McClellan commander of 

the Army of the Potomac. 

52 1 861 Southern ports blockaded. The "Trent" 

affair. 

53 1862 Death of Willie Lincoln. 

53 1862 Lincoln sends out the Emancipation Proc- 
lamation. 

53 1862 Appoints Burnside to succeed McClellan. 

54 1863 Emancipation Proclamation becomes a law. 
54 1863 Lincoln appoints Hooker to succeed Burn- 
side. 

54 1863 Appoints Meade to succeed Hooker. 

55 1864 Appoints Grant Lieutenant-General of the 

Army. 
55 1864 Nominated for second term by the National 

Union party. Elected President. 
Lincoln Inaugurated. 
Visits Grant's army at City Point. 
Goes to Richmond. 
Assassinated by John Wilkes Booth. 



56 


1865 


56 


1865 


56 


1865 


56 


1865 



A Reading List 

Arnold, Isaac N. Abraham Lincoln. Chicago: 
Fergus Printing Company. 1883. 

Baldwin, James. The Story of Lincoln. (Four Great 
Americans.) Chicago: American Book Com- 
pany. 1897. 

Brooks, Noah. Abraham Lincoln and the Downfall 
of American Slavery. New York: G. P. Put- 
nam's Sons. 1894. 

Carpenter, F. B. Six Months at the White House 
with Abraham Lincoln. New York: Hurd and 
Houghton. 1866. 

Coffin, Charles C. Abraham Lincoln. New York: 
Harper & Brothers. 1893. 

Curtis, William Eleroy. The True Abraham Lin- 
coln. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co. 
1903. 

Gilder, Richard Watson. Lincoln the Leader. Bos- 
ton: Houghton Mifflin & Company. 1909. 

Hill, Frederick Trevor. Lincoln the Lawyer. New 
York: The Century Co. 1906. 

Lamon, Ward Hill. Recollections of Abraham Lin- 
coln, 1847-186 5. Edited by Dorothy Lamon. 
Chicago: A. C. McClurg and Company. 1895. 

Morgan, James. Abraham Lincoln, the Boy and the 
Man. New York: The Macmillan Company. 
1908. 

Morse, John T., Jr. Abraham Lincoln. (2 Vols.) 
(American Statesmen.) Boston: Houghton 
Mifflin & Company. 1893. 

190 



The Man of the People igi 

NicoLAY, Helen. The Boys' Life of A braham Lincoln, 
New York: The Century Co. 1906. 

Oberholtzer, Ellis Paxton. Abraham Lincoln. 
Philadelphia: George W. Jacobs & Co. 1904, 

Pratt, Silas G. Lincoln in Story. New York: D. 
Appleton and Company. 1901. 

Putnam, George Haven. Abraham Lincoln, the 
People' s Leader in the Struggle for National Exist- 
ence. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1909. 

Rice, Allen Thorndike. Reminiscences of Abraham 
Lincoln. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1909. 

Schurz, Carl. Abraham Lincoln; an essay. Boston 
and New York: Houghton Mifflin & Company. 
1891. 

Tarbell, Ida M. The Life of Abraham Lincoln. (2 
Vols.) New York: McClure, Phillips & Co. 
1900. 

Whitney, Henry Clay. Lincoln the Citizen. New 
York: The Baker & Taylor Company. 1908. 



Little Lives of Great Men 



Charming little books where the child meets the 
great man and learns to know him not only as a 
hero, but as a boy like himself. 

NAPOLEON: THE LITTLE CORSICAN 

By Esse V. Halliaway 
The story of the kingmaker from boyhood up. Brisk, 
vital, full of sympathy. O.ie of the cherished books of 
the child library. Line drawings by Louis Braunhold. 

LINCOLN: THE MAN OF THE PEOPLE 

By William H. Mace, Professor of History, 

Syracuse University 

A graphic and moving story of the great War President. 

His pathetic childhood, gradual development in strength 

and power, and the great climax. Many interesting line 

drawings by Homer W. Colby. 

CROMWELL: ENGLAND'S UNCROWNED 
KING 

By Esse V. Hathaway 
It is a far cry from the quiet little lad of Hinchinbrook 
to the iron Lord Protector, but the child has the whole 
story, and in the most interesting form. A strong back- 
ground of the times. Line drawings by Carle M. Boog. 

WASHINGTON: A VIRGINIA CAVALIER 

By William H. Mace, Professor of History, 

Syracuse University 

(In preparation.) 

FREDERICK THE GREAT 

By Esse V. Hathaway 
(In preparation.) 



Rand McNally & Company 

Chicago New York 






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